Perky Blenders

Perky payments

The husband and wife team behind East London’s Perky Blenders have gone from roasting coffee in their garden to opening four coffee shops, a thriving online subscription service and a growing wholesale supply business. And they did it in just seven years.

“I was an engineer, Victoria had a background in customer service, while my younger brother Tom was a barista,” explained co-founder Adam Cozens. “Between us, we just wanted to focus on really good coffee. So we began roasting in the back garden, purchased a three-wheeler with an espresso machine in the back and began selling coffee at events.”

From the very earliest days of their journey, the Perky Blender’s team has used GoCardless to make sure they get paid on time, every time – with minimal fuss for themselves and their customers.

“I was looking for automated payments and it was starting to feel like it would be anything but simple for a very small business to set up direct bank payments,” said Adam. “But when I found GoCardless it seemed miles ahead of anything else. We took a closer look and its simplicity and usability shone through. We knew customers would trust it and that we’d be able to onboard them quickly.”

A roasting success

GoCardless is now part of the fabric of Perky Blenders’ customer experience.

“The benefits of GoCardless, where do I start? They're excellent,” said co-founder Victoria Cozens.

Adam agrees, adding that the system helps the company punch above its weight in terms of the size of customers it serves. He said: “It's an expectation from larger businesses that you'll be able to pay via direct bank payment, so it’s definitely reassuring as a small business to be able to offer that service. We get feedback that it's a useful way for them to manage their payments with us.”

The money the team has saved by dodging unwanted payments admin runs into the thousands of pounds, and GoCardless is also keeping the cash flowing nicely. “It’s easier for customers to pay, so we get cash into the bank faster,” said Adam. “We estimate we’ve saved about £20,000 on admin costs so GoCardless is a real asset to our business.”

And Victoria says getting paid with GoCardless also frees up something arguably even more valuable: “It just cuts down so much time, time on the phone, time chasing emails, time following up. I think I estimate that I save personally two days a week of work just by using GoCardless.”

Zero Xero stress

Small business owners need their tech solutions to be well integrated so they can pour their energy into growth instead of messing about managing their systems. That made the integration between Perky Blender’s Xero accounting software and GoCardless a major plus.

“Our Xero is very, very busy,” said Victoria. “Anything that helps us to make our lives easier when it comes to accounting and bookkeeping is a huge win.”

Adam added: “It's not something we've had to worry about. The integration provides the flexibility to invoice each customer within days and the confidence that GoCardless will automatically take the payment on the due date, whether that’s payment on invoice, 60 days, whatever.”

Green team

Rounding out what has grown into the perfect payments package for Adam and Victoria is an alignment of values between Perky Blenders and GoCardless. The team feels certain they have the right partner for right now, and the right partner for whatever the future might hold. 

“Environmental credentials are very important to us as a business,” said Adam. “GoCardless is passionate about sustainability and any of our suppliers working towards net zero – as they are – is always going to be a benefit for us.”

“Taking everything together, GoCardless makes us feel confident. From day one, we were looking at ways of making sure that we had a system that would scale with us, and GoCardless has certainly made us feel confident that we can do that.”