Our History
AMT Coffee was created in 1992 by the McCallum brothers, for one sole purpose - to provide the best cup of coffee in the UK, together with genuine service at a reasonable price.
When Alistair, the youngest, arrived in Oxford from Seattle, he noticed that real coffee was nowhere to be found, he immediately asked his two brothers to join him in creating AMT Coffee. Although the brothers had little finance, they had plenty of determination to make their coffee business a success. After they scraped enough money together to design and build their first street cart, the race was on to secure their first site, which they finally did in Oxford city centre - AMT Coffee was born.
Two years on they were struggling to introduce the public to this new concept- as back then, it was unheard of to walk down the high street with a take away latte! Nevertheless their little bar immediately attracted Oxford's coffee connoisseur who were delighted with the novel but luxurious service. Thanks to them, the word began to spread allowing the determined trio to remain focussed on gaining enough custom to stay in business, improve and grow.
Things finally changed when they placed their third coffee bar inside Oxford Railway Station. There they found overwhelming appreciation by commuters who were crying out for a real cup of coffee, with service to match. However, unfortunately they yet again found themselves on the brink of failure - this time due to the dominant competitor's dislike for competition. The powers that be told the brothers that they had lost their site. This was the most serious scenario they had ever faced - the real difference between failure and success. The brothers turned to their new but immediately loyal commuters for help and support and amazingly, the powers to be withdrew their notice and AMT Coffee remained in Oxford Station - the rest as they say, is history!
This is the true reason why we at AMT Coffee are so passionate about customer service!
AMT Coffee then began to grow concentrating on placing more bars in our country's most prestigious stations and airports. With this growth came an army of loyal commuters which made us stronger and stronger. Even on our 15th anniversary, many of our original customers still only choose AMT Coffee.
Although compared to large multi nationals, AMT Coffee is a small private company, we took the big step, acting on our customers suggestions and proudly became the first national coffee company to serve 100% fairtrade coffee and 100% organic milk.
Even though today, due to AMT Coffee's lead, there are few major stations without some sort of a pasty, doughnut, soup, bagel, cookie, smoothie or coffee kiosk, the fact is that commuters' services have greatly been improved simply by providing them with a choice. Furthermore, although every single one of these other kiosk now sells their version of 'gourmet coffee' together with their core product, there is still only one genuine customer driven coffee company and that is AMT Coffee.
Today, Alistair and the rest of us at AMT Coffee are concentrating on improvement, growth and, of course, customer service. We are also very excited about our future plans and the difference they will make - always remaining true to our customer driven formulae - which is and always will be to provide our customers with the best we can.
When Alistair, the youngest, arrived in Oxford from Seattle, he noticed that real coffee was nowhere to be found, he immediately asked his two brothers to join him in creating AMT Coffee. Although the brothers had little finance, they had plenty of determination to make their coffee business a success. After they scraped enough money together to design and build their first street cart, the race was on to secure their first site, which they finally did in Oxford city centre - AMT Coffee was born.
Two years on they were struggling to introduce the public to this new concept- as back then, it was unheard of to walk down the high street with a take away latte! Nevertheless their little bar immediately attracted Oxford's coffee connoisseur who were delighted with the novel but luxurious service. Thanks to them, the word began to spread allowing the determined trio to remain focussed on gaining enough custom to stay in business, improve and grow.
Things finally changed when they placed their third coffee bar inside Oxford Railway Station. There they found overwhelming appreciation by commuters who were crying out for a real cup of coffee, with service to match. However, unfortunately they yet again found themselves on the brink of failure - this time due to the dominant competitor's dislike for competition. The powers that be told the brothers that they had lost their site. This was the most serious scenario they had ever faced - the real difference between failure and success. The brothers turned to their new but immediately loyal commuters for help and support and amazingly, the powers to be withdrew their notice and AMT Coffee remained in Oxford Station - the rest as they say, is history!
This is the true reason why we at AMT Coffee are so passionate about customer service!
AMT Coffee then began to grow concentrating on placing more bars in our country's most prestigious stations and airports. With this growth came an army of loyal commuters which made us stronger and stronger. Even on our 15th anniversary, many of our original customers still only choose AMT Coffee.
Although compared to large multi nationals, AMT Coffee is a small private company, we took the big step, acting on our customers suggestions and proudly became the first national coffee company to serve 100% fairtrade coffee and 100% organic milk.
Even though today, due to AMT Coffee's lead, there are few major stations without some sort of a pasty, doughnut, soup, bagel, cookie, smoothie or coffee kiosk, the fact is that commuters' services have greatly been improved simply by providing them with a choice. Furthermore, although every single one of these other kiosk now sells their version of 'gourmet coffee' together with their core product, there is still only one genuine customer driven coffee company and that is AMT Coffee.
Today, Alistair and the rest of us at AMT Coffee are concentrating on improvement, growth and, of course, customer service. We are also very excited about our future plans and the difference they will make - always remaining true to our customer driven formulae - which is and always will be to provide our customers with the best we can.
