'I lost my job when Tata Steel closed its last furnace - now I'm running my own cafe'

As the last blast furnace in Port Talbot ground to a halt in September this year, around 1,900 steelworkers lost their jobs. However, before the fire breathed its last at the Tata Steel plant, 28-year-old Cassius Walker Hunt envisioned a different future for himself.

The former blast furnace operator has set up a new coffee shop, Portablo Coffi, at the Aberafan Shopping Centre in Port Talbot and has now been running it for eight months, a job which he believes is worlds apart from his previous role.

Cassius remarks: “Well, if you can imagine, once you go into the steelworks, you’re in a gated community. It's locked off. You see things, explosions and smells and sounds that you won't see in the outside world. Things are very dangerous. Now, I’m in a safe environment compared to being in a very dangerous environment. So it's quite different.”

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Speaking of his days as a steelworker, he said: “Life was okay. I lived five minutes away from the plant. I could see the plant from my bedroom window. Most days I would cycle, if not, I’d drive in. So that was very lucky for me to be able to go, you know, not far away from my home. And life was good. You know, going to the plant and working.”

However, Cassius did feel ‘let down’ on finding out about the closure of the final blast furnace . He said: ”You just feel a bit disappointed, don’t you? You feel let down. Once you’ve been led up to a position and looked up to a position and then been told that there’s nothing going on, then of course you’re going to be a little let down. But then you’ve got to start moving forward then.”

And moving forward was what he did. With a £7,500 regeneration loan and grant from Tata Steel subsidiary UKSE, Cassius embarked on setting up Portablo Coffi. However, moving forward for Cassius did not mean leaving Port Talbot behind. For the latest Neath Port Talbot news, sign up to our newsletter here.

Explaining his inspiration behind the coffee shop, Cassius said: “I didn’t want to do hardened industry work anymore. I felt like I didn’t want to go back into it, so I thought I’d change it completely. ‘Why not?’, I thought. I just wanted to change it up. I was chasing good coffee, and I wanted to do it properly. Having my own blend, and not selling anyone else’s coffee. I wanted to do it my own way,” he added.

The shop’s name, ‘Portablo Coffi’ isn’t the only nod to local culture. Designed meticulously through the help of local artist Hassan Kamil, the coffee shop is as local as it gets. Cassius said: “They call Port Talbot the street art capital of Wales. There’s a lot of street art around, so I thought I want to celebrate that, and get some real local artists to come down and help me out.”

Portablo Coffi’s local focus is what makes it unique, as Cassius explains: “We have our own brand of coffee. We have our own blend of Arabica and Robusta Coffee beans, and the roastery is just down the market in Bridgend. We support local bakers, we don’t go down to the big chains to get our cakes.

"We support local causes, chippies, boxers, football clubs. We get all our cups handmade by a ceramicist in Blackwood. So we keep trying to keep it all in the local economy, really,” he added.

He has only one message to anyone who might still be hesitant to visit Portablo Coffi: “If you’re into real nice furniture, real nice cups and proper coffee, as you travel around, this is the place to go to try out — and you won't be disappointed.”