A POPULAR coastal café is celebrating 25 years in the business by throwing a party to raise money for charity.

Hive Beach Café will mark the occasion with a celebration on Thursday, August 18 – with funding being raised for Weldmar Hospicecare Trust.

Steve Attrill, owner of the Hive Beach Café, has put the success of the venture down to the “ethos of being a family business”.

He said: “We are very proud to be celebrating our 25th year in business.

“Throughout this time, we have stuck to our ethos of being a family business which includes all members of the family - my parents, nephews and daughters.

“At the time the business was launched, my parents were running The Three Horseshoes in Burton Bradstock and we saw the Hive Beach Cafe as great opportunity, especially as Dorset tourism has gone from strength to strength over the past 25 years.”

Mr Attrill has spoken out about the importance of the business changing over the years.

He added: “We have worked very hard over the past 25 years to make the business a desirable location to visit.

“Our passion is to bring new and exciting aspects to our company which keeps it interesting for us but also for our customers. This summer sees the launch of our pop up smoothie shed which people seem to love.”

Mr Attrill has also highlighted the importance of local food and drink.

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He said: “Our chefs are very passionate about sourcing the best fresh fish from local suppliers and fisherman, so our customers know to expect great quality food when they visit us.

“We are also able to offer some background to our customers, we can tell them which day boat their fish came from and which fisherman caught it - and they know that all of our cakes and biscuits were made by the team at our micro bakery in Burton Bradstock.”

Mr Attrill is pleased the business has been able to expand to West Bay with the opening of the Watch House Café – as well as running a stall at Glastonbury Festival.

He added: “We are very lucky to have loyal local customers as well as visitors.

“We know that the café can get very busy during the summer months and we are grateful for our customers patience on these occasions.

“Our celebration is set to be a very exciting evening. We wanted to create an event which the whole family could come to. It’s an open event so no tickets are required. We have a large range of food, drinks and entertainment in store – most excitingly, a performance from a Mariachi band throughout the night.

The event will end with a firework display, during which money will be collected for Weldmar Hospicecare Trust.