Imogen Edwards, Sam Paine, Penny Ilsley, the owners of Coffee on the Corner, are today celebrating a whole year since they served their first customers.

Coffee on the Corner of Warwick Road, Kenilworth first opened its doors to the public on November 9 2019, and has since gone from strength to strength.

The shop had previously been a NatWest branch, but the unit had been empty since 2017, before it was leased by Imogen, Sam and Penny.

With a goal of serving good coffee, and freshly-made cakes Coffee on the Corner has fast become a go-to for the people of Kenilworth.

Imogen said "we decided to do it early in 2019 because we were all a bit dissatisfied with our jobs, and I was looking at what I wanted to do long term, and Sam was thinking about running his own business.

"It came together really because I was doing a lot of baking outside work for other people, birthdays things like that, and Penny had always worked in hospitality, in hotels.

"We visited coffee shops at the weekends all the time and we just said 'yeah I think that we could do this' but it was one of those things that you think about but never do it."

Imogen, her partner Sam and his mother Penny began looking around for premises, before taking over the lease on Warwick Road.

The unit had been completely stripped, so they had to redo all the electrics, put down new flooring and of course decorate.

They picked the keys up in September last year and "all in all it was eight weeks between getting in the building, doing the renovations and then opening."

From the beginning the trio had a clear vision of what they wanted to achieve, combining Imogen's hobby of baking alongside what they would actually want from a coffee shop.

"The main essence for us was that we have a coffee shop that bakes all its own cakes, and catered for vegan and gluten free.

"So it is me and Penny do all the cakes ourselves, at the start we were doing them very early morning, but now we can do it in the day a bit more.

"Our oven is behind the counter so people can see us putting them in, and people can see us making them on site.

"We are about creating a welcoming and relaxing environment, with real homemade cakes, made with love, and made with us, and we want to make a nice cosy environment for people to enjoy. Proper cake and proper coffee."

Perhaps the only blot for an otherwise fantastic first year of business was the closure in March due to the first lockdown.

As with almost all businesses, Coffee on the Corner closed for two months, before reopening for takeaway in June and then fully again in July.

"The reopening was really good," says Imogen "we were astounded by the response and how busy we were."

Going into the second lockdown of 2020 they will remain open for takeaway only "It is not as scary now, it isn't as out of the blue as last time and we are far more prepared!"

Despite the unusual nature of their first year, Imogen reflected "I can't believe really that a year has gone by.

"Its weird because it feels like so long ago, because there was no social distancing, no screens, and that seems so different to me, because we are so used to it all now, so in that sense it feels a while ago, but otherwise it has gone really quickly.

"It has exceeded our expectations massively, after we first opened we were so much busier than we thought we'd be and it has been really hard work, but it has been exactly what we have wanted to achieve in that time."