A vibrant and sun-filled atmosphere welcomes customers as soon as they walk through the doors of the local coffee place, Coffeenity Yard.
Adlina Azlan and Anwar are the founders of the lively and colourful coffee shop nestled within the residential areas of Kg Katok, serving up more than just a cup of coffee.
Founded in 2022, the neighbourhood coffee shop was born out of the husband-wife duo’s genuine love for coffee and desire to bring people from all walks of life together.
The founders also came up with the inspiration of the Coffeenity Yard after being impressed by coffee shops from different parts of the world.
Adlina and Anwar’s love for coffee and cafe-hopping is what initially inspired opening The Coffeenity Yard, but she and her husband hope the business would be much more than just a place for coffee lovers.
“We had so many ideas and concepts that we wanted to apply to the coffee shop. The most important goal was to have the coffee shop spin around the idea of “Community Inspired Coffee”, which is a play of words that inspired ‘Coffeenity’ — a marriage of two words Coffee and Community,” said Adlina.
“By combining these two cultures, we want the coffee shop to be inclusive of all kinds of people from the community whether it be race or age, coffee drinker or tea drinker, we welcome everyone,” she added
The Coffeenity Yard took shape and form and transformed from vision into reality when Adlina found the perfect location for the café in the front yard of her in-law’s home.
Since February this year, the founders have been hard at work transforming the 450 sq ft front yard into a bright neighbourhood coffee shop.
The husband-wife duo wanted to create a sense of community in the neighbourhood and a comforting atmosphere as they want people to feel at home when they come through the doors.
“We liked the idea of having a coffee shop in the ‘kampong’ (village) surroundings, like a juxtaposition of two worlds. A kampong that has great quality coffee as if we are in Bandar (city). Some people also described it as being like in Bali, Indonesia,” she shared.
Having envisioned the storefront as a second home for their customers, the inside space comfortably accommodates up to 30 – 40 customers at one time. The coffee shop also features lush and vibrant outdoor seating.
The Coffeenity Yard focuses on quality, freshly brewed coffee from roasters around the globe. The partners are planning to introduce different types of blends
“We offer a variety of beans from all over the world. We use Robusta and Arabica beans and offer different types of blends,” said the 33-year-old.
The Coffeenity Yard’s menu features artisan coffee menu like Yard Latte, Brulee Latte, Rose Latte, Honey Bee Latte, Orange Americano and many more
On regular days, the couple shared that the Coffeenity Yard would receive an average of 50-60 cups of orders per day.
“Our most popular artisan drink I would say is ‘The Yard Latte’ as it is always sold out,” she shared.
According to the duo, the family-owned business is also popular for its Beef Nachos and Spinach Cheese Dip
On the sweeter side, their carrot cake is also popular among their growing customers.
As with many businesses nowadays, social media plays a big part in promoting coffee shops.
The founders would start posting their new drinks and menus through their Instagram @TheCoffeenityYard
“Instagram has been our main social media platform to connect and engage with our customers. It has helped tremendously in directly updating our customers on our latest updates, menu and events. It also gives the opportunity to our customers to share their reviews directly to us or in their personal Instagrams,” she said.
Adlina shared that she and her husband are happy with the growth of the business over the past year and are still learning how to be business owners.
Since its opening, the neighbourhood coffee shop has been getting positive responses and amazing support.
“The response has been really great some days, even overwhelming. Alhamdulillah. We try our best to accommodate everyone,” she said.
She also shared that the couple feels encouraged by the constant support from their family and friends they have received throughout their business journey and also the help of their passionate team of baristas who not only believed in the business but also supported them through all the challenges.
“I feel since July we have grown so much and we have learned so much in terms of our operations. We have made some processes leaner in comparison to our earlier days. In other words, the team is getting a hang of it already. We are constantly improving our products and services as we go,” she said.
The road to opening a coffee shop has not gone without challenges, and the duo learned the hard way that it would take more than just passion to build a successful business.
It takes teamwork and communication to overcome the challenges, she said, highlighting their staff as the backbone of the business
“By having a continuous improvement mindset, we believe that challenges are inevitable. It is not a matter of not experiencing the challenge, it’s a matter of when and how you should tackle it. How we overcome it, is by checking in with everyone and seeing how they are, and letting them voice out their opinions and we try to fit them into our current process. We improve as we go, we try to tackle everything quickly before it becomes a huge issue.”
The budding entrepreneurs are always thinking of what to do next. When asked about the business’s future plans, the founders are eyeing to expand their menu and branch.
“We are thinking of expanding our product portfolio in the future and I may open another branch,” he shared.
“For those budding entrepreneurs, who are thinking of opening a business, my advice is to start now. If you have an idea, test it and start now. You will never know if it’s a good or bad idea unless you test it out in the real world. I feel some ideas just stay as ideas because of the fear of failure,” she advised.
THE BRUNEIAN | BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
