A few years ago, former coffee importer, Nick Mastro, saw a dramatic change take place in Australia’s cafe culture.
Australia was becoming more coffee-savvy, smaller roasters were emerging and this paved the way for a greater appreciation of unique blends and direct traded single origin beans.
These days, cafes want to put their own stamp on their beans, Mastro realised. Four and a half years ago, he founded Coffee Galleria, a boutique coffee roastery, to tap into this trend.
“The source of beans and their origins are now of growing importance to consumers and roasters,” Mastro stated. “Cafés want to offer their own unique blends, and this has implications for the packaging of these.”
The strategy looks to have paid off. The company has tripled in size in the last three years, and it now processes nine tonnes of coffee beans a week.
Coffee Galleria sources, roasts and packages single origin beans from the world’s finest growing regions and it also creates blends with a diversity of flavours, aromas and nuances.
The company supplies its own coffee range under the Adore Estate Coffee brand to more than 700 cafés in Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Canberra. 50% of its business, however, involves custom roasting and packaging coffee for cafes that want to create their own signature coffee blend to solidify branding and secure customer loyalty and repeat patronage.
Coffee Galleria has a library of specialty blends from which they can draw. Or cafés can work with its ‘blend architect’ to create a unique blend that works with the characteristics of the café’s own brand.
Cafés are also increasingly looking to offer their customers a single origin coffee in addition to their house blend, says Mastro, and this may vary from week to week. Coffee Galleria has direct trade arrangements with farmers in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea to provide this.
Canisters and airtight, sealable bags are still the most popular forms of packaging. Coffee Galleria's own Adore brand's resealable pack uses an easy pull-strip to open. The edges of its packs are ridged to provide more structure and cleaner lines.
Coffee vertical bagging machines are still popular for mass filling as they offer precision and speed. But Mastro has noticed that many trade clients are leaning towards more organic looking packaging, greener packaging materials and styles that meet international composting standards, and reusable canisters.
Increased knowledge about and interest in altitude, country of origin, and blend has resulted in more of this type of information being displayed on packaging and labels. Coffee Galleria has a team of graphic designers and marketing strategists to offer advice on the latest packaging trends, and the capabilities to produce them. And it has invested in the latest processing and packaging equipment to offer a customised end-to-end roasting and packaging service.
Three key factors lie at the heart of its success in the private label market: quality, consistency and flexibility, Mastro stated: “We weren’t always so flexible. Now we can offer a customised blending and packaging service for businesses of all sizes."
Coffee Galleria is also boosting its retail presence through a “mobile coffee lab”, made from a converted shipping container, that tours events and trade shows
