Brita Professional reveals the winners of its Grounds of Innovation Awards

TAUNUSSTEIN, Germany – BRITA Professional has announced the 2023 winners of its inaugural Grounds of Innovation Awards, a tribute to the UK’s vibrant café culture and the creativity born out of coffee shops. Alongside a leading judging panel, BRITA searched the UK for coffee shops that embodied innovation.

The top ten most innovative coffee shops in the UK have been revealed as:

1. Skinny Dip, Margate
2. Qima, London
3. Baffle Haus, Pontypool
4. Batch Baby, London
5. Effy Stores, Nottingham
6. Formative, London
7. Fika, Norwich
8. Lowdown, Edinburgh
9. Carbon Kopi, London
10. Souli, London

The awards comes on the back of the launch of PURITY C iQ – one of the biggest innovations for the hot beverages sector in decades.

The launch of this new innovation was inspired by the strong link between creativity and coffee. Recent research from Brita Professional revealed that 58% of UK adults associate coffee shops with creativity. Almost half (43%) visit a coffee shop at least once a month to inspire creativity and innovation. And 54% are drinking coffee when they feel most creative.

The research also revealed other elements that would make customers stay longer and return to coffee shops, including:

• Free refills (49%)
• Drinks offers and promotions (37%)
• Reward schemes (35%)
• Food options (28%)
• A dedicated workspace (24%)

Being the first award of its kind in the sector, BRITA Professional assembled an elite panel of coffee industry titans to help narrow down the shortlist and create the top 10 ranking:

• Ben Lewis – UK Latte Art Championship Finalist 2018, 2019, 2020
• Emma Haines – Director at Caffeina
• Lois and Michela Wilson – Founders of Saint Aymes
• Paul Whitehead – Business Account Manager at BRITA UK
• Peter Dore-Smith – Founder and Director at Kaffeine

Lois and Michela Wilson, founders of Saint Aymes and creative partners of the Grounds of Innovation campaign, commented, “A clear theme throughout the winners of the award was the sense of community that these locations foster. When you actually focus on innovation and creativity, you’re more likely to create a community, and you’re more likely to stand out.”

Tom Denning at Skinny Dip, the top ranked coffee shop, comments: “It just means a lot to all of us to have this industry recognition. Our shop opened its door five days before the first lockdown so it’s extremely satisfying to have navigated such a steep learning curve and to now be achieving this recognition. The creative community in Margate inspires us every day and it will continue to play a huge role in our business as we look to expand.”

Paul Whitehead, Business Account Manager at Brita UK: “Judging these awards highlighted the true breadth of creativity in coffee we have across the UK, all the way from South Wales to Scotland and everywhere in between. The winners had truly inspiring stories, both from how they operate their businesses in a thoughtful manner to how customers use their locations to boost their own creativity.”

For more information on Brita Professional’s Grounds of Innovation campaign and further information on the winners, click here.

About BRITA Professional

• BRITA was founded more than 50 years ago and is one of the leading experts in the field of water filtration. The family business manufactures water filtration products for households and businesses in more than 60 countries.  
• BRITA Professional products are designed to produce the best filtered water for food and beverage preparation by reducing particles, metals, minerals and chlorine that have an unfavourable impact on the taste, appearance and aroma.   
• BRITA fully acquired VIVREAU UK in 2016. Today, BRITA VIVREAU is the global leading innovator in the manufacture of environmentally positive purified drinking water systems, supplying a wide range of products dispensing chilled still, sparkling, ambient and boiling water.  
• BRITA filters improve machine longevity by reducing limescale build-up and deposits of unwanted minerals. By guarding against potential damage, businesses can improve the reliability of equipment. 
• BRITA is a business built on sustainability. With initiatives such as a designated ‘green team’ and waste facilities on site, which turns waste into renewable energy. Its eco-saving through recycling has amounted to nearly 55,000kg of CO₂ and almost 29 MWh of power generated. 
• BRITA consistently recycles filter materials and has done for more than 25 years. The activated carbon from used filter cartridges is returned to the manufacturer, where it can be used for other applications such as wastewater treatment. Last year BRITA recycled over 1.7 million cartridges.