Alicia Smith and Matthew

The 22-year-old, who has just graduated with first class honours in Business, launched Cuple Coffee – a vintage coffee van serving speciality brews and home-baked sweet treats – last month, at Penydarren Boys and Girls Club in Merthyr Tydfil.

Alicia was inspired to start her own business thanks to a module on entrepreneurship, which encourages the next generation of entrepreneurs to make their start-up ideas a reality.

“Studying at USW was an easy decision for me – I wanted to stay close to home for university, and USW has one of the best business schools in Wales,” said Alicia, from Abercarn, Caerphilly.

"The university has also been ranked top in Wales for new graduate start-ups for five years running, so I knew it would be a great place to hone my entrepreneurial skills.

“I’ve always had an interest in business, and I knew I needed a degree to be able to progress in my career. So as soon as I turned 19, I decided to go for it.

“During my second year, my lecturer Anthony Thomas asked us to come up with a business idea with a theoretical budget of £1,000, which really sparked my creativity and helped form the start of our plans for Cuple Coffee.”

Alicia also took part in USW’s Bright Ideas Den – a funding scheme that awards up to £1,000 to students and graduates to support their business or freelance ideas – which gave her the opportunity to present her first ever business pitch.

After years of making their own coffee and baking everything from banana bread to croissants and Welsh cakes, Alicia and Matt decided to take the plunge and turn Cuple Coffee into their full time jobs – starting with finding the perfect van.

“We found a beautiful 1978 Peugeot van and drove up to Peterborough to collect it,” said Alicia. “As it was originally imported from France, it’s a left-hand drive, which made the long journey home quite eventful for Mathew! But we absolutely love it, as it’s so unique.”

Mathew’s dad set about renovating the interior to accommodate their specialist coffee machine and equipment, before Cuple Coffee was ready to open to the public in early July.

“Penydarren Boys and Girls Club is where Mathew plays football, and they have kindly agreed for us to be pitched in the car park, which is close to lots of local businesses and a popular dog walking route,” said Alicia.

“We’re excited to be getting our brand out there and offering something a little different to the coffee lovers of Merthyr. We’ll also be doing pop-ups at food festivals and other events throughout the rest of the summer, which will give us the chance to try new products and see what works for our customers.

“There have definitely been moments when we’ve wondered what on earth we have let ourselves in for! Putting everything into the business is intense – we’re up at 4am to bake everything fresh, then heading home mid afternoon to prep for the next morning – but we’re so proud of ourselves for making Cuple Coffee happen, and can’t wait to see what the future holds.”