Update – Monday 13th January: The thaw came through as promised and our lanes are looking a lot less Arctic. We're expecting Royal Mail and DPD collections to resume today, so your coffee should be on its way shortly. Thanks for bearing with us.
Friday 10th January
Well, this wasn't in the plan. Storm Goretti arrived overnight and brought the Staffordshire countryside to a bit of a standstill. Here's what's happening with your orders and when we expect things to be back on track.
TL;DR
Heavy snow in Staffordshire is affecting deliveries. We're still working on orders at the roastery, but our rural access roads are pretty snowed in. Expect things back to normal by Monday.
If you've been watching the weather news, you'll know Storm Goretti dumped a serious amount of snow across the Midlands overnight Thursday. Our roastery here in the Staffordshire countryside got hit with 10–15cm, with drifts considerably deeper in places. While the main roads have been cleared and gritted, our country lanes are still buried.
What's happening right now
We're still at the roastery working on orders - beans are roasting, bags are being filled, and the team is doing everything we can to keep things moving. But here's the situation: Staffordshire County Council prioritises main arterial routes for gritting (only about 43% of the county's roads get treated), which means rural roads like ours are left to nature. Completely understandable given the scale of the network, but it does mean our access is currently challenging.
Our team's safety comes first. We're not asking anyone to navigate dodgy country lanes just to get coffee out the door.
The collection challenge
Here's the other piece of the puzzle: we rely on daily collections from Royal Mail and DPD to get your orders into the delivery network. Both use heavy goods vehicles, and we've had confirmation from both that collections are cancelled today – their trucks simply can't navigate our narrow, snow-covered lanes safely. Even with orders packed and ready to go, we need those collection vehicles to actually reach us.
The good news
The weather's about to do us a massive favour. After today's cold snap (it's currently feeling like -5°C with wind chill – proper Baltic), we're looking at a significant shift:
- Saturday: Still cold with ice risk in the morning, but temperatures will creep above freezing during the day.
- Sunday: Milder Atlantic air arrives, pushing temperatures to 6–9°C. Combined with some rain, Sunday afternoon should see real improvement on our rural routes.
- Monday: The thaw we need – 9–11°C forecast. Travel conditions should return to normal.
What this means for your order
If your order is already with Royal Mail or our other carriers, it's in their hands now. You can check Royal Mail's service updates here and DPD's service updates here.
Worth noting: it's not just our lanes that are tricky right now. Conditions are challenging across the country, and delivery drivers everywhere are doing their best to navigate snowy roads and icy paths. If your tracking's looking a bit slower than usual, please bear with them - they're out there in the cold getting parcels to doorsteps, and that deserves a bit of patience.
If your order is with us awaiting dispatch, here's where we're at. With no HGV collections getting through, we'd planned for some of our team to load up their cars with mail sacks and drop them at the Royal Mail sorting office in central Stafford on their way home as some of the main roads into town are clear enough. Good plan, we thought. Unfortunately, Royal Mail have let us know that jack-knifed HGVs and widespread weather-related issues across their network mean nothing's moving until Monday regardless. So even if we got parcels to the depot, they'd just be sitting there. With that option gone, we're waiting for the thaw like everyone else. We're aiming to be back to our usual lightning-fast dispatch by Monday.
Questions?
Drop us an email at orders@ozonecoffee.co.uk and we'll get back to you as quickly as we can.
We're sorry for the delay, and we appreciate your patience while Mother Nature sorts herself out. Your coffee is worth waiting for, and our team's safety is worth protecting.
Stay warm out there.
- Team Ozone