Launched in 1959, it’s safe to say Coffex Coffee Roasters know their way around a top-notch cup of joe.
In 1959, two Italian migrants saw coffee becoming more popular in Australia and launched a small operation to bring good coffee Down Under. What began as a humble business comprising just ten staff members has since become one of the most trusted and experienced roasters in Melbourne which now slings beans around the country.
Still a family-owned operation over 60 years on from its inception, we caught up with the folks from Coffex Coffee Roasters to hear about their story, what sets their coffee apart and how they’re faring in the current climate.
Established in Coburg more than 60 years ago, Coffex Coffee Roasters is one of Australia’s most experienced, respected and trusted coffee roasters. Tell us a bit more about the Coffex story.
Firstly, yes we have been around for 60 years. It has definitely been a journey for us throughout the Australian coffee scene. We are still a privately-owned family business, since the days of its inception. Born out of our founder’s vision of wanting to serve better coffee to Australians, we have carried on this tradition as our motto until today. Coffee Excellence.
Our business started in Victoria and has expanded throughout the years to cover the whole of Australia and a few other countries. We are proud of the fact that our consumers are loyal to our product and have always been fantastic support throughout the years.
A little fun fact, we have a sister Head Quarters (Roastery) based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as well. Here we roast and cater to the larger and fast-growing South East Asian market.
How have you been travelling? What is it like to run a coffee business during these crazy times?
We’ve been travelling alright through these tough times. We were essential enough to have been allowed to stay open for the period of lockdown as we supply wholesale nationally. As wholesalers of coffee by trade, it was tough to see a variety of our valued customers go through these times struggling from the get-go of the lockdown. Particularly in Victoria where a lot of customers were affected.
We’ve had to implement changes to the way we do business nationally and allow for different sets of approaches to handling delicate situations with compassion and understanding.
All in all, we are seeing a good bounce back in business, for the hospitality industry particularly, with the support of the community over the last few months. However, time will tell if we will see a full recovery for our much-loved industry.
Future-wise, we are looking forward to a bigger and better year ahead once we’ve beat this pandemic together.
Coffex is recognised year after year at The Golden Bean Awards and Australian International Coffee Awards, among others. Tell us more about your coffee range. What are some of your premier blends?
The awards that we win and receive from peers in the industry gives us validation, internally, that we are doing the right thing year after year. We participate in these competitions/awards to benchmark ourselves every year against our ever-growing industry, both nationally and internationally. It has been both humbling and rewarding at the same time.
As tradition dictates, we’ve always maintained a Classic Range on our portfolio. This range has always been our premium best sellers to the public, as well as to consumers nationally. We strive to maintain the blend and taste profile of this range year in and year out.
As for our evolutionary range, we have now begun offering a variety of select Single Origins and Single Origin Blends on our webstore. These are ever changing with the seasons and years. We select what’s tasting the best currently in the market and choose to showcase it in a rotating offering.
You have an extensive online store where everyday coffee drinkers can get their hands on your blends. How are you catering for the needs of coffee enthusiasts during the current lockdown?
We’ve expanded our online store with a larger range of products and offerings in the last six months. Online shopping is the safest and most trusted option these days, so it was only natural that we give our consumers and trusted customers what they want.
We’ve recently refreshed our website with better functionality as well as now offering a rewards program for all our online shoppers.
Besides our own webstore, we have now also expanded into the mobile grocery sections of UberEats and Deliveroo. Starting locally in Victoria, we will be looking to partner and expand into other states in the future. The digital economy is an important one for all of us in this space as it will play an important role for future consumers of our product and it allows us to better serve our customers nationally.
You also distribute coffee machines and grinders… Sounds like the perfect birthday or Christmas present. Tell us more about this side of the business.
We are trusted distributors of great brands who equally have strong traditional values of quality and excellence.
We cater for a wide range of audiences nationally. However, the three brands which we strongly promote and supply are La Cimbali Espresso Machine, SanRemo Coffee Machines and Fiorenzato Grinders. These brands have been great both in reliability and technological advancements in their field of products over the years, hence why we are more than proud partners and distributors of their products.
Anything else you’d like to share?
We would like to offer Beat readers and subscribers a very special offer. If they’d like to know more about us and try our products, use this special subscription link to our newsletter which will entitle them to a 20% discount code on their first order with us!
Order online and find out more at the Coffex Coffee Roaster’s website.
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