10:10AM, Wednesday 22 January 2014
An independent Maidenhead coffee shop will close its doors on Sunday after two years in business.
Owner Andrew Bowen said the lease expires for the Java & Co cafe in the High Street and he wants to spend more time focusing on his two other branches in Abingdon and Oxford.
The father-of-two, who runs the business with his wife Claire, says it has nothing to do with the impending arrival of Starbucks in the Nicholsons Centre although believes the popular coffee giant would 'not improve his trade'.
"It will impact Caffe Nero and Costa," said Andrew, who lives in Abingdon and ran franchise Coffee Republic in the same unit in Maidenhead for four years before setting up his own brand Java & Co which also serves its own coffee blend.
He added: "People do prefer independents."
"Running any independent business is about appealing to the customers to make things new and exciting for them, that is where the chains struggle."
Work on Starbucks, to go into the empty Cafe Franco unit, will begin on Monday and is due to be complete by the beginning of March.
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