BeanScene Magazine

Listing off Craig Dickson’s past and present Veneziano employees is an exercise in coffee name-dropping.

Dave Makin, two-time Australian Barista Champion and World Runner-up; Erin Sampson, World Third Place Latte Art Champion; Craig Simon, reigning Victoria Barista Champion – the list goes on.

For someone who has invested so heavily in supporting barista competitions and elevating the skills of the Australian coffee scene, it’s a surprising discovery that Craig’s entry into the coffee world had little to do with his time behind the machine.

His industry introduction came from his work for catering company, Spotless, that managed a large group of corporate cafeterias. As such, he had ample dealings with their coffee suppliers, Douwe Egberts, who eventually asked him to take over as state manager.
“Prior to that, I really didn’t have any idea about coffee. I probably made a few cups behind the machine, but I didn’t know that I was doing,” he remembers.

He got to know the Australian scene by working for three years as State Manager for Douwe Egberts, and eventually taking over their national accounts. It was a time, he recalls, when few roasters were operating in Australia, and Douwe Egberts was thriving, with accounts including McDonalds, KFC, Spotless Group and many more.

“It was the right time, the right group of people,” he says. “I think the difference was that we were hospitality people, not coffee people.”

Following his Australian success, Douwe Egberts sent him to The Netherlands, where he worked for the company’s Global Network Division. His section was given free rein to set up business wherever the company didn’t already have a presence. For Craig, this turned out to be largely the Middle East. It turned out to be pretty shaky timing as his first visit to Saudi Arabia was October 2001 – less than a month after the less than a month after the 9/11 attacks.

He went ahead with the trip, and set up partnerships for Douwe Egberts in the Middle East, as well as Norway and Ireland. He spent three years living in The Netherlands with his wife Fiona, who had a position doing International Marketing for Douwe Egberts. When she fell pregnant, the couple were told they would be transferred to Asia, but they suggested taking some time in Australia first to have their baby.

It was this decision that Craig says led to the end of his time with the company. After spending time in their hometown of Melbourne with their newborn child, the couple couldn’t leave.

To this day, Craig can count the years since he first started with Veneziano by the age of his daughter. It was eight and a half years ago when Rocky Veneziano approached the returned ex-pat and Craig quickly took over most of the management of the business. Craig helped Rocky realise his vision of producing coffee that would be the highest quality available on the market.

“The early days were tought. We were all packing beans and doing the deliveries ourselves,” Craig says.

The early work soon paid off, however, and after building a strong presence in the Victorian market, Veneziano now operates in New South Wales, Canberra, Queensland and South Australia. Their national business functions under a model where they sell their business name and branding outright to the different markets who receive exclusive distribution rights. The Victorian team coaches the state businesses and provides guidelines on which customers they can access, but the onus to succeed is placed entirely in the hands of these satellite operations.

“We work closely with them, but it’s their money and their business. So they really have to be as passionate as we are,” Craig says. “That’s why it works.”

The passion that Craig brings to his own business has trickled down to his employees, evident in the number of award-winning baristas Veneziano produces. Craig explains that his interest in barista competitions stems back to his time at Douwe Egberts where they regularly held internal events to encourage better coffee making skills. In running his own company, Craig says he’s continued to encourage competitions because of the benefit not just to baristas, but the company as a whole.

“What we get from competing is that we learn a lot about coffee,” he says. “It challenges everyone in the industry – the roasting team, the baristas. It’s great that we’ve been so successful but for us competition is mostly about continually challenging our people to make better coffee. We educate [our clients] that when they make better coffee, the more coffee they’ll sell and the more money they’ll make.”

It was this same philosophy that led to the construction of Veneziano’s First Pour café in Abbotsford. When it was initially built, Craig points out that it was one of the first cafés attached to a roas tery. The idea was to provide a venue where new baristas could practise their skills alongside a trained barista. As the company’s staff naturally had a sophisticated palate for good coffee, new baristas would have to build up their skills pretty quickly.

“Here [at First Pour] we don’t tolerate bad coffee. If a coffee isn’t good, we send it back,” Craig explains. “If a barista is successful at First Pour, then they can make it anywhere.”

The espresso bar has developed a reputation of its own. From one full-time barista when it opened, Craig now employs four. As a result, he’s recently renovated the café and upgraded its facilities to include a dedicated cupping lab, for their baristas and customers.

The company has taken major steps to increase customer education levels, especially when it comes to the origin of their coffee. In recent years, Craig has worked to establish strong direct trade relationships with their growers. In speaking about direct trade, Craig is firm to point out Veneziano’s commitment to having “real” relationships with the farmers. “We actually go out there and meet with the farmers, we have a relationship with them and they also spend time with us here.”

One of their strongest relationships is with Nishant Gurjer, from Kaapi Royale & Sethuraman Estate in India, who visited Melbourne last October. Craig points out the importance of this relationship with Nishant, as the company plans on sourcing 25 per cent of their green coffee from India.

“We’ve been to his farm and we’ve come to understand what he does. We can also tell him, ‘we want this much processed in a certain way,’” explains Craig. “It gives us much more control over the final product and in the end a better quality product for the customer.”

In addition to his own visits to India and Brazil, Craig sent Erin Sampson to Colombia and Panama, and Craig Simon to El Salvador. He says that both baristas, who competed in the last AASCA Victorian Barista Championships, had a big edge over other competitors, in being able to better tell the story of their coffee. It was enough of an edge for Craig Simon to win the Victorian Championships and put him in a strong position to win this year’s Australian title and go on to the World Barista Championships (WBC).

While Veneziano takes part in most barista competitions that occur in Australia, Craig says that for him the WBC is really the “Olympics” of them all, as it brings together the best talent the world has to offer. Having attended the WBC five times, he has regularly witnessed the astounding success Australian baristas have achieved. He’s also been to three US Barista Championships, and says that while their level of talent is impressive, it must be taken in relative consideration to their population size.

“As a nation, our specialty coffee scene is ahead of the States, if you look at the percentage of population,” he says. “I’ve been told that in the Unites States, you have to go out and find specialty coffee, but in Australia, we have it at our doorstep.”

Craig played an integral role in bringing AASCA’s support for the Melbourne International Coffee Expo, the first dedicated international coffee event taking place on Australian soil that will host this year’s AASCA Australian Barista Championships. He explains that it was this appreciation of the sophistication of Australia’s coffee scene that led to Craig putting his full support behind the event.

“In Australia, coffee championships have always been part of another food event. There’s never been anywhere to go for specialist courses like they have at the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) and SCAE (Specialty Coffee Association of Europe) events. Considering our industry, there’s no reason why we can’t have them in Australia.”
Craig says that without a dedicated event, Australian baristas have not received the recognition they deserve.

“It’s frustrating in Australia – it takes a lot of time and a lot of money to win a competition, but these baristas aren’t recognised,” he says. “With a dedicated event, this allows us to showcase the best baristas in Australia.”
Craig expects to continue to see changes in an increasingly fractured industry. No longer having to drive the delivery van, he says Veneziano is in a good space to continue its leading position.

“We’ve got access to a lot of resources, but most importantly we’re a team of well-educated people who can support our clients.” he says. “We’re bigger than the little guys, but we’re also not a multinational. We’re in a very unique space.”