A SALISBURY-BASED coffee company is set to mark a significant milestone - serving its 10,000th online customer.

Cannonball Coffee Company specialises in “high-caffeine” roast-to order coffee and was set up by Duncan Grocock in 2018 after he left the army. He served in the Royal Artillery and was based at Tidworth and Larkhill.

“Cannonball Coffee is about really great tasting high-caffeine coffee - fuel for exercise and just active people who want to get stuff done and be productive," explains Duncan.

"When I left the army in 2017 I was desperate to try my hand at being an entrepreneur and running my own business because I had been a cog in a big machine for a long time and wanted to be the decision maker and have a bit of control over it and implement some new creative ideas,” adds Duncan, who says coffee was something he had a “passion for” and was a “relatively easy” area to get into.

“I have always been interested in coffee and always liked strong coffee and high-caffeine coffee and didn't feel like there was a good product on the market in the UK.”

After learning how to roast coffee at Winchester Coffee School, Duncan, started off running the business from his house. In the early days he used to pack orders in his kitchen and walk to the local post office to ship them. The company roasts its coffee near Blandford.

Duncan has been busy focusing on the social/digital marketing side of the business – growing its customer base which he says has seen an increase during the pandemic especially with more people working from home. The company serves customers not just locally but across the UK.

"In my mind I hoped it would achieve this sort of rate of growth. When I started I didn’t have a clear plan of how I was going to achieve it. I’ve learnt that as I’ve gone and built the plane into flight so to speak,” he said.

Cannonball Coffee Company is expecting to hit its 10,000th customer milestone this week. Duncan added: “Ten thousand is a really significant milestone and shows it is more than a cottage business and it’s got potential to make an impact nationally."

He hopes to work with others in the area brands in the area to create a “hub” and would also love it to become a nationally recognised brand in the future and "put Salisbury on the map". There are also “big plans” working with Southern Quarter in Amesbury.

Go to cannonballcoffee.co.uk for more information.