International chain Caffe Nero sits well with independent coffee shops in Inverness city centre
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Caffe Nero first moved to the Highland capital five-and-a-half years ago and currently enjoys a good central location on Inverness High Street.
They were able to reopen after the coronavirus lockdown at the beginning of July and regular customers were pleased to see it return.
Jenni Carmichael, the branch manager, said: “It’s been good in general because we’ve got fewer seats and we couldn’t let as many in, so it’s frustrating at times for them having to wait.
”The first couple of weeks it was takeaway only. I think people wanted to sit in and get back to normality.”
Caffe Nero was founded in 1997 and currently the company runs more than 1000 coffee houses in eleven countries including the UK, Ireland, Sweden, Poland, Cyprus, Croatia, Turkey, the UAE, Oman, and the United States of America.
Mrs Carmichael said it was good to have the backing of a multinational company behind them, but felt it was good that Inverness also had a good mix of independent cafés in the city centre.
She said: “We’ve got the best of everything. We’ve got the takeaways, cafés and shops. It is really good.”
And she felt it was safe enough for customers to return to the city centre because of all the safety measures which are now in place.
“We have got all our signs up and the tables are distanced,” she said. “The customers have to wear their masks until they are at the table. It’s pretty much as good as we can get for now.
“All the businesses are doing as much as they can do to encourage customers back. It’s going to take a while.”
However, she said she was optimistic and would “see how it goes”.
