Street Food Warms Your Heart: Doutor Coffee - Facts about Doutor Coffee The Singapore Team The Ambience The Menu

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Doutor Coffee - Facts about Doutor Coffee The Singapore Team The Ambience The Menu

FACTS ABOUT DOUTOR COFFEE

Parent Company - Parent Company Doutor Nichires Holdings Co., Ltd. engages in the management of cafes and restaurants in Japan. It is also involved in the manufacture and sale of bread and pastry products, processing and sale of roasted coffee; and import, export, purchase & sale of foods.

Doutor Coffee Co., Ltd. operates a chain of coffee shops. It also engages in the production, import, roasting, wholesale, and retail of coffee beans in Japan. In addition, the company offers marketing and consulting services to restaurant and coffee shop franchises. The company was founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Doutor Coffee Co., Ltd. operates as a subsidiary of Doutor Nichires Holdings Co. Ltd. The company currently has over 900 locations in Japan, has begun expansion in Taiwan and Korea. It is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Altogether, Doutor Coffee has over 1,200 outlets throughout the world.

The Beginning - On 18th April 1980, Doutor Coffee opened the first European styled café in Harajuku, Japan. At a mere 9 meters square, Doutor Coffee used the limited space efficiently to serve high quality food and beverages. With the quality food & beverage, reasonable pricing & great service level, the small café became a great success & eventually paved the future of Doutor Coffee.

Despite the small size and local competition, Doutor Coffee succeeded and has expanded to the company that it is now. Today, Doutor Coffee has more than 1200 outlets throughout the world.

The Management - D&N Singapore is part of the parent company Doutor Nichires Holdings Co., Ltd. in Japan. D&N Singapore operates Doutor Coffee, Hoshino Coffee, Japanese-style spaghetti restaurant chain Yomenya Goemon, Aka Tombo and Chinese restaurant chain The Asian Kitchen here in Singapore. (**Aka Tombo is a Japanese all day dining concept serving Nabe, Sushi, Oju, Curry & Omu Rice, Teishoku, Bento, Spaghetti, Sukiyaki. Aka Tombo opens its first new Singapore outlet at Marina Bay Link Mall & is managed by D&N Singapore.**)

Doutor Coffee in Singapore - Doutor Coffee opens its new Singapore outlet at Marina Bay Financial Centre Tower 3 & is managed by D&N Singapore, part of the parent company Doutor Nichires Holdings Co., Ltd in Japan.

Doutor Coffee's Success Factors

Customer-oriented - Doutor Coffee prides their success based on their ability to achieve & maintain great customer satisfaction. When the company first started the first Doutor Coffee in 1980, the company focus on pricing their coffee at an affordable price of 150 yen (despite the business running on high operation cost) in order to provide affordable coffee to their customers.

Besides affordability, the Doutor Coffee shop is designed to provide creature comforts for their customers - from the quality of the items served, to the lighting and decor in the Doutor Coffee shop, the company takes pride in providing a holistic approach toward the enjoyment of a cup of Doutor Coffee.

The Plantations - As the business grew, Doutor Coffee had to acquire their own plantation to ensure the quality of the coffee bean they receive. In 1991, Doutor Coffee has its first plantation in Kona Island, Hawaii. This is followed by a second plantation which started operation in 1995. In just a quarter of a century, Doutor Coffee realized its dream of having its own Coffee plantation.

The Perfect Roast - In general, a majority of roasting plants adopts the method of roasting using hot air. Although the use of hot air roasting is highly efficient for roasting large quantities, it degrades the original flavour of the coffee.

Doutor Coffee explored various method of roasting and finally decided to use open flame roasting, which best retain the flavour of the coffee beans. This method is time and labour intensive, but produces richly flavoured coffee beans. However, open flame roasting is normally adopted only by smaller shops as roasting of coffee in this manner allow for only 5kg to 20kg of beans at any one time.

With no readily available equipment to roast the beans in large quantity, Doutor Coffee embarked on the research and development of an industrialised open flame roasting equipment which is in use till today. Today Doutor Coffee uses industrialised open flame roasting equipment which best retain the flavour of the coffee beans & produces richly flavoured coffee beans.

D&N Singapore Pte Ltd (Singapore Team )

The Management Team in Singapore consists of :

Takako Otsuka, Director - Doutor, Japan
Raymond Goh, Assistant General Manager - D&N Singapore
Edmund Anthony, The Asian Kitchen
Minoru Mori, The Asian Kitchen
Agnes Yap, Marketing & Operations Manager - Doutor Coffee

Assistant GM - Raymond Goh (below)

Marketing & Operations Manager - Agnes Yap

The Ambience

The retail shop is bordered by glass panels flush to the floor to create a welcoming transparent clear uninhibited space for customers outside the shop to have a clear view of the shop ambience & for the customers inside to have a bird's eye view of the external environment.

The side glass panel on the right of the entrance is a comprehensive display of the various coffee blends that Doutor Coffee retails. These retail packs form one revenue source for the shop apart from the dine in food served here. Besides these retail blends, Doutor Coffee also markets coffee mixers as demonstrated by Manager Agnes Yap (**above)

The Service Station adopts an open concept where customers place their order after joining the queue, pay and then wait for the order to be processed. They can then choose to dine in or takeaway.

Doutor Coffee serves a wide selection of dainty cakes desserts in varied colors that appeal not only to your eyes but to your palate, your sense of smell as well - Strawberry Rare Cheese Cake, Hokkaido Milky Roll, Mount Fuji Mont Blanc, Hokkaido Souffle Cheesecake.

Besides Cakes & desserts, customers at Doutor Coffee can savour yogurt in several flavors as well as delectable homestyle sandwich such as : Katsu sandwich, Tuna Egg Sandwich, Teriyaki Sandwich, Vegetarian Sandwich, Ham Tomato Sandwich.

The decor is modern minimalist with the shop having an L-shaped dine-in seating area divided into two sections. The first section nearer the Service Counter consists of several round high bar wooden tables flanked by comfortable matching cushioned high wooden chairs without backrest (**below) & some flanked by cushioned high chairs with back rest.

There is a row of high chairs facing the drop off point that comes with charging stations for customers who are here to charge their phones or laptops whilst sipping their coffee. (**below)

The other section of the L shaped dining area consists of round wooden tables flanked by ivory cushioned sofa chairs with back rest & arm rest.

The designer cleverly installed large rectangular mirrors in portrait position on the two sides of the walls perpendicular to the main wall facing the entrance of the shop that is lined with black & white wallpaper with bookshelf & books design (**below).