Coffee business is zooming ahead

http://www.northernstar.com.au

IN JUST three years, Zoom Coffee's success has mirrored its name, going from a double garage at Lennox Head to its own roasting and warehouse site in Ballina.

And just recently, wholesaler Zoom purchased Coffee Nirvana, adding Lattetude and Nirvana to its existing brands.

Home-grown is a strong sentiment and Zoom has two brands - Australian-certified organic Fairtrade and Australian Arabica, a local coffee grown without pesticides. Nirvana comes from a local plantation at Newrybar. Zoom's products are licensed with the Australian Grown Campaign, as well as Fairtrade.

Zoom's managing director, Mark Nancarrow, said acquiring Coffee Nirvana enabled his business to expand into the important restaurant and cafe sector and to continue its reach into other states and areas, such as premium grocery lines.

The new facility at Ballina incorporates a coffee showroom, espresso training centre and a roasting and packaging plant workshop.

Zoom was one of the first coffees locally to recognise the trend towards Fairtrade and the Rainforest Alliance, and is now established as a leader in supplying both coffee products to the wholesale market.

“At Christmas we notched up our 35th store, but now with the purchase of Coffee Nirvana we'll be selling into about 150 stores and 60 cafes,” Mr Nancarrow said.

He said he was now concentrating on building the brand in stores.

“We've had a nibble from China and South Korea. They approached us, so we sent quite a bit of coffee over there and we'll see what comes of that. I'm really concentrating on our Australian coffee - Nirvana is registered with Australian growers.

Part of Zoom's success has been in partnerships it has made with schools.

“We're very heavily into marketing and we'll go to school fairs and set up a stand for them and an espresso machine and make coffees. The customers pay, but we give the takings to the school as a fundraiser. It's good, because the school gets good money and we get our branding out in the marketplace. Instead of handing out free samples, which we used to do - this works better. And we might raise $1000 for the school,” he said.

As well as hitting a chord with the public, Zoom Coffee has a swag of awards under its belt, including two bronze medals at the Equal Golden Bean Roasting Awards.

“Zoom Coffee ranked overall in the top five per cent of roasters in Australia. We beat some of the big names in the coffee industry,” Mr Nancarrow said.

With a background in managing big newsagencies in western Sydney, Mr Nancarrow appreciates the compact nature of his business. Although with its rapid expansion, he has upgraded systems.

“We have a good inventory system which I've set up and that's important to get a handle on cash flow and what we have on the floor. I do worry about how quickly it's growing, but I'm passionate about what we do and I'm confident we have an excellent product, so I plan on getting in touch with AusTrade to look at our export possibilities,” he said.

Zoom Coffee uses local companies to supply of reusable bags and labels. And the company supplies its green coffee beans in hessian bags to minimise waste.

As well as exceptional coffee, Mr Nancarrow puts Zoom's success down to excellent service.

“That's our point of difference. I'll go around the shops each week or fortnight and tidy the shelves up or restock and say g'day, just to get a face out there. And we only roast the beans as the orders come in, it's absolutely fresh. I'm not just dumping the box and saying see you later, we actually put the stock up on the shelves,” he said.