by popular request we're doing a follow-up video
of all of the brand new Boujee Boba bubble tea locations here in London
all right we are back here in London with Isaac from Boujee Boba and we're not at his ghost
kitchen today we're at one of his brand new shop locations one of three actually so first
we're going to take a look at this one and he's going to show us around and we'll go from there
location number one is Boujee Boba here in Stepney Green and as a reminder this is a working shop
location and we're on a super busy London Road so there's cars going by and refrigerators in
the background so if you hear any noise you know what it's from so before we begin would
you mind telling us how your grand opening went of course it was overwhelming didn't expect the
support we got queues around the block honestly it was surreal I think we opened at five o'clock
and we're in here setting up from about 1pm all right well congratulations I'm super excited for
you and I definitely want to take a look behind the counter and I'm sure you guys do at home as
well let's see how it's laid out so this is behind the scenes where most of the work happens so we've
got our EPOS system customers come in take orders we've got our delivery that we've started as well
so people can order online drivers come and collect it deliver it to your door then we've
introduced our coffees our meal deals so we've got a selection of crisps or chips if you call that in
America they've got muffins and stuff like that we also have a soft serve machine which helps us
you know give you soft serve ice cream we've got a couple of interesting ideas coming in for summer
then also helps us make our milkshakes and then obviously got the sealing machine our blenders
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there's a range of our syrups so it's quite quite nice on view a bit colorful [Music]
it's a very simple coffee machine jellies popping boba all easy to serve
customer comes in take the order from there if there's a ticket ticket goes up there
from there then obviously the first thing that goes into the cups are the toppings
tapioca in here then you've got if they're having some jelly or popping Boba put that
in the cup and then we turn around to here see if it's a fruit tea we then choose the syrups
add our desired tea ice shake it cool it down and strain into the cup with ice if required obviously
you've got the fructose machine for the desired sugar levels to go into seal and once we've
sealed the cup it's back onto the counter pass it onto the customer we have two ice machines and
um yeah they're sufficient Yeah but saying that when the summer comes we'll find out I'm fortunate
enough we've got a dark kitchen down the road uh with a walk-in uh freezer and I've got tons
of ice in this it's just a matter of if you need it just popping down there grabbing a few boxes
Isaac I'm curious to know what it's been like in terms of previously being in a dark kitchen most
of the time not often seeing customers right you're working behind the scenes now all of a
sudden loads of customers you're out in the open doing your thing what was that like for you wow
uh where can I start it's a bit of a shock even like me being a chef for over 15 years a lot of
my work is behind the scenes end of the night you know you might meet and greet a few uh customers
but that was it especially nowadays everyone wants to go on TikTok they want to do snippet of their
drinks being made so they can post it through their stories I'd be there making drinks from a
dark kitchen and I could see in the corner of my I've been recorded or people are watching makes
you nervous when you not used to people watching you now everything's open there's nowhere to hide
behind so you got to make sure everything's on point before we open this we are we're almost in a
dark kitchen for eight months we're still running the dark kitchen took a week two weeks maybe after
that you just get used to it it's a part of the environment now and I hear you're a little bit of
a celebrity now too now that people are actually seeing you on a daily basis you're quite more well
known in the area and online in the community too is that is that correct I wouldn't say a celebrity
as such it's just got a lot of people that you know want to invest in businesses I've helped them
out causing queues around the block people get to notice I want to know who's behind the brand
I was born and bred in this area so I've already you know got a connection with the community an
easier ice breaker and I'm sure a lot of people might be curious so you still have your ghost
kitchen and you still have all of the businesses that you're running through that for just delivery
then you have this brick and mortar location and it also has delivery right so now you've
got another opportunity for even more delivery uh options to pop up when people are looking for a
bubble tea through COVID the delivery Market has grown unbelievably I wouldn't know the stats but
I think it's almost doubled so a lot of people even to basic things as your milk and bread you
can deliver to home now instead of popping to the shops so why not have your bubble tea delivered to
your home if you're not already doing deliveries explore it because you could bring in another 20
to 50 percent extra in revenue on top of what you get that walkthrough but there are a lot of
tips and tricks you'll have to learn like making sure all your drinks are getting delivered without
getting destroyed en route we've had a lot of learning curve especially with uh sparkling
drinks and the second location we're heading to now is Forest Gate it's literally right next to
the tube station this location is at Forest Gate literally a stone's throw away from the station a
lot of foot flow it's a slightly smaller location however it's not about size it's what you can do
with it very similar to Stepney Green a little bit more compact is where you locate yourself
it's all about the foot flow in this one we've got coffees so people grabbing the morning coffees we
do bubble tea based coffees like a iced Boba latte you like a Tapioca you like your coffee get a hit
of that in the morning this area is like about half of the size of the other one that we were
just in in terms of behind the counter and in front of the counter as well so would you mind
showing us around real quick of course so again uh this is imagine like a kiosk uh people walk
through the door place the order here now if they want ordered coffees we've got a coffee
machine here freshly ground coffee all our cups I'm not sure if you can see the rice cooker here
for the Tapioca And then got our fructose machine our sealing machine tea urns got our popping Boba
jellies are kept in the fridge and we take our as and when we need it is it safe to say then
that probably up until about noon you mostly sell coffee but then once the kids get out of
school around after lunchtime-ish it's probably when you start selling more bubble tea right
absolutely saying that you'd be surprised we still do sell Bubble Tea in the morning as much as some
people don't prefer the coffee they might like the caffeine from a fruit tea nice fruit refreshing
drink to start your day in all our locations we have uh most of our menu the same but depending
on the location we've adapted it slightly to the area some desserts shops have got access to
desserts that we can make like cake shakes each and every location for something different this
is one of our franchises there's a number of ways to franchise you've got licensing to full TurnKey
franchises what that means is we pick a location collectively and we kit it out and you literally
come in turn the key then you go other aspects of Licensing virtual kitchens it's like for example
you go into Tesco's and you grab your Costa Coffee still going to Tesco's but you're also getting a
a good coffee so you can have like for example if you've got your dessert shop you're thinking about
introducing bubble tea why not bringing a brand that's well known will bring a lot more business
followers expertise recipes support so what that will mean is you can increase your revenue
alongside your current business so this is something we do in Angel they were a dessert place
they thought about introducing bubble tea I've got an another one in Illford which is actually
a bubble tea the shop itself but we ran a virtual brands from there so what that means is might walk
into the shop and not know we're there but when you're ordering online you're ordering from that
location all the staff is trained with our recipes but they've got their own brand but we bring them
additional income through virtual brands that means more than one store in that location
the other thing is deliveries there's ways and softwares available now that let you integrate
multiple brands so example a small shop like this you've got a EPOS system here you don't see any
tablets they've got UberEats JustEat Deliveroo but you can't see those tablets because it's all
integrated into one system make it easier for the staff to make orders quickly efficiently without
having to find the tablet which is pinging make sure they've accepted it making sure they can read
it because all different tablets have different fonts sizes modifications in different sections
of the receipts integration is definitely one of the ways forward and especially you want to do if
you have got a lot of brands is ideal so Isaac I'm curious to know how often you visit all the shops
I mean is it one of those things where you're here every day are you here just like once a
week are you literally just running around all the shops like how does that work for you that's funny
initially when we launch is literally running back and forward to the shop we've just launched I do
visit the shops once a week every other week I Mystery Shop the shops so my management team
that none of the franchises have ever met or will meet or will ever know yeah so that they can come
in make sure all the drinks are to the standard we expect them to be the shops are running the
way they should be also mystery shopping via our delivery platforms we order drinks it's
about quality control making sure we're staying on top of our franchises our own shops everything
unbelievable how many orders I've actually shopped from my own shops just to make sure the teams
are doing everything they need to do and doing it correctly so that the customer is getting the same
experience in every shop possible yeah definitely because that's your brand on the line like if
those things start going downhill from one shop next you know it could really affect your overall
brand so that's super important and I think what you're doing is great sending mystery shoppers out
there and you know doing investigative research make sure everyone's doing everything on point
and keeping everything with quality control so that's really good and understanding how busy you
are do you think you'll eventually get a manager to kind of step in and take your place or are you
comfortable with the amount of work that you're doing right now well right now I'm comfortable but
as we grow there'll be a completely infrastructure put in place in terms of our managers area
managers there's so much one two three people can do if you want to grow you want to grow
to a nationwide brand you need to make sure you've got that infrastructure in place I mean people in
marketing people in branding now this is a bit of a logistical side nitty-gritty question now do you
pay the shops do the shops pay you do you have an accountant who kind of handles everything how does
that work as much as we're growing in the last year a lot of the stuff has been handled by myself
at the moment it's all the licensing all the profits all comes from me at the moment but it's
overseen by an accountant to make sure I'm doing everything correctly everything is in black and
white contracts in place so everyone gets paid on certain days of the week it's a structures that's
quite popular if you if you know about virtual brands back to one of the previous questions
we'll probably need an accounting department to manage through each stores revenues profits
Etc yeah because when you've got one shop it's pretty easy to do things yourself you just handle
everything but then as soon as you got more shops or more locations or events or kiosks or whatnot
especially for you for franchising and Licensing it can get out of control so it's good that you
have all that in place now as you're growing and then that way when you take it to an even bigger
level and maybe in the future we'll come back you'll have 10 shops soon you never know maybe
within the next year probably then that way I'll be asking you that same question you'll be like
guess what we've got a team of people already in place we've already got it going so that's great
that's really cool all right well that wraps up today's video again Isaac I am super excited to
be here thanks again for having me to come check out your locations I'm super excited for you
this is amazing and thanks so much for tuning in we'll see you again soon take care [Music]