Paul Ettinger will be presenting his lecture "From Coffee Communities to Online Communities, The Changing Face of Britain"

Date: Wednesday 7 October 2015 at 18.00

Tea & Coffee will be served from 17:30 with a performance from Lenny Filipova at 17:45

Venue: Turner Sims, Highfield Campus

Lecture Synopsis

The incredible growth of the coffee bar market is part of a much wider change in the British High Street and our shopping and recreational habits, which has now led to the growth of online shopping and social networking.

This will be the story of how Caffè Nero went from nothing to 800 coffee bars across the world, and how, in the past two years, that has led to the emergence of the fastest growing UK community social network with over 1m users almost entirely over the age of 40!

About the speaker

Paul has a BSc in Physics and Electronics from Southampton University and an MBA from Insead in France. Following his MBA he spent 13 years in the chemical industry (Courtaulds PLC) latterly developing joint ventures in Asia and running a German acquisition for two years. On moving back to the UK in 2008 he helped a friend acquire 5 coffee bars which subsequently became Caffè Nero. The business floated on the LSE in 2001 and was taken private in 2007. It now has over 800 outlets in the UK, Ireland, UAE, Cyprus, Poland, Turkey and the USA. For the first ten years of Caffè Nero Paul was responsible for all food and beverage development as well as purchasing and distribution. He now spends two days per week at Caffè Nero looking after the International business as well as the extensive music programme which has sponsored many young musicians over the past years. In 2011 Paul helped to found a community social network, www.streetlife.com which has grown rapidly to over 1 million users in over 4500 active communities across the UK and which is now raising a Series B financing to take it to a global business.

The rest of the time he has become an active Angel Investor and is a Director in five other businesses; www.sweetfreedom.co.uk (the healthy alternative to sugar), www.nashxleb.ru (a Russian bakery and retail food chain), www.physio4all.com (healthcare) and Vintage TV, the UK’s leading music TV station. He is also a Director of the family business, Ettinger of London (luxury leather goods).

Paul Ettinger - Distinguished Lecture