Ottoy joins the London-based specialty coffee group at a ‘pivotal period’ in its growth, with three new UK stores and an international debut in New York slated for the first half of 2023
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WatchHouse operates 10 London stores, with two new outlets set to open in the first quarter of 2023 | Photo credit: WatchHouse
UK-based WatchHouse has appointed former Planet Organic Head of Operations Caroline Ottoy as the group’s first Managing Director.
The specialty coffee shop group, which currently operates 10 stores across London, said Ottoy will be responsible for driving further growth for the business with a particular focus on maintaining operational excellence and expanding WatchHouse’s growing e-commerce offering.
Ottoy will report directly to WatchHouse CEO and Founder Roland Horne.
“I’m delighted to welcome Caroline into the WatchHouse family, and I am very much looking forward to working with her as we enter a pivotal period for the business growth. With her proven track record scaling businesses and over two decades of experience in senior leadership roles within the hospitality and retail industry, I’m excited by what we can achieve as we take our modern coffee offering to more people in more places across the UK and internationally,” Horne said.
WatchHouse has two new outlets set to open in the first quarter of 2023, in London’s Marylebone and Covent Garden, and is set to open its first site outside of London in Bath, UK, this year.
The specialty coffee group is also set to make its international debut in the US in the second quarter of 2023 with a store on Fifth Avenue, New York.
In September 2022, WatchHouse launched its first crowdfunding round, raising £2.8m ($3.4m).
Despite a tough trading environment throughout 2022, World Coffee Portal data shows the £4.9bn ($6bn) UK branded coffee shop market achieved 4.4% outlet growth over the last 12 months.
Project Café UK 2022 forecasts the market will surpass 10,200 outlets in 2024 and exceed 11,600 stores by January 2028.
