IT WAS somehow appropriate that Cool Beanz coffee house was launched on one of the hottest days of the year so far.

Ipswich businessman Glenn Williamson has taken over one of the ground-floor units below the Ipswich Borough Council offices in Grafton House to create his stylish new café.

He said: “I am in the Ipswich borough offices quite a lot in relation to my lettings business. I hadn’t really been looking to open a coffee shop but I always thought ‘there is no way to get a coffee here’.

“That’s where the idea came from. This is really a good location. There is not the competition there is in the town centre itself.”

He won’t be running the coffee shop on a day-to-day basis – that will be manager Emma Whiting and her team. However, he has been heavily involved in the planning of the bright and airy new building.

He said: “We have also tried to source as much as we can locally. We have Paddy & Scott’s coffee, from Earl Soham, our butcher is from Melton and the cakes come from Tiptree, just down the A12. Even the cup cakes are made locally.

“We have also tried to keep the pricing realistic as we want people to keep coming back,” he added.

The art on the walls is also by local artists and so potentially for sale. The location is the Ipswich Village area with both Ipswich Borough Council and Suffolk County Council staff, and their visitors, potential customers right on the doorstep.

Ipswich Crown Court is also next door, which is another potential source of customers, said Mr Williamson.

The café will be open from 7.30am to 5.30pm, Monday to Friday, and Ipswich Town season ticket holder Glenn will also open up on Town match days as somewhere for fans to meet up before the game. “At other times we won’t open evenings,” he said.

Mary Blake, the Mayor of Ipswich,who officially opened the coffee house, said: “It looks wonderful. I shall certainly use it.

“It is great to see someone launch a new business in these times. Perhaps it will encourage others to do the same in Ipswich.”