Shops / coffee
How fixing coffee machines turned from a hobby into a business
Rory Orchard has always enjoyed tinkering. Whether it’s fridges or bicycles, he has taken them apart to learn about their inner workings before putting them back together again.
During lockdown, the coffee machine used by his wife Debs and her colleagues at Southmead Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) broke so there was only one thing for Rory to do: take it apart to discover how it works, then fixing it and returning it back to the grateful medical staff as good as new.
Soon, Rory was buying broken coffee machines, fixing them on the kitchen table at their home in Cheswick Village and selling them on; before the operations of the SEO-friendly business now called Fix My Coffee Machine expanded to move into the garage that was converted into a workshop.
is needed now More than ever
The latest expansion has seen Rory leave a desk job with Intel in Swindon to work full-time in the growing business.
Debs has also reduced her hours as a neonatal nurse practitioner at Southmead to also work in their newly-opened unit on Gloucester Road where School of Espresso shares space with Fix My Coffee Machine.
On a recent morning, Debs had to tell a couple of people walking in off this stretch of road known locally as Pigsty Hill that the shop does not serve takeaway coffee, although there are plans for that in the new year.
The business specialises in repairing and servicing home coffee machines made by Australian company Sage, with the husband and wife team now also moving into retail and looking to sell as many Bristol-made products as possible which so far includes everything from beans roasted by Wogan in St Jude’s to crocheted designs made by Debs’ NICU colleague Hannah Bowen, aka BoLoops.
Customers can come in to School of Espresso and be talked through how to use a machine by Rory and Debs, with Sage machines here costing from £300 to £2,000 – photo: Martin Booth
From the beginning of December, Rory has been full-time at School of Espresso and Fix My Coffee Machine, while Debs still works two days a week at Southmead.
“This is different,” Debs admitted, saying that “a big part” of her job as a nurse “is talking to people and making them feel reassured and at ease”.
“That’s completely what I love to do, and it’s nice that this is a bit more relaxed… The worst day is not the worst day.
“It’s just a completely different place. No one is ill and needs life-saving treatment. It’s a little bit more calm!”
Rory and Debs, both 33, grew up in Newton Abbot in Devon and have been married for three years having first met as teenagers.
Future plans in the unit that used to be a financial advisers office are for classes like espresso martini making.
But for now, according to Rory, “the focus is making this a go-to place for people who need a domestic coffee machine”.
“There’s a lot of things that I want to do with this which I haven’t had the time to sink my teeth into and I’ve now started being able to do that.”
School of Espresso has opened on the stretch of Gloucester Road known locally as Pigsty Hill – photo: Martin Booth
Main photo: Martin Booth
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