BeanScene Magazine

Ask Crivelli’s Debra Knight about profiling her staff in print and she’s a little hesitant to bring them too much attention.

Since taking over the business three years ago, Debra has been gathering an impressive list of professionals from a cross-section of industries: her key accounts manager comes from entertainment; her accountant stepped over from the shipping industry; her head of production once studied photography; and the newest member of her team is a former biochemist.

As proud as she is of her diverse line-up – they also stem from 12 different nationalities – Debra admits that her caution comes from a fear they may be courted by employers elsewhere.

Debra has hand-picked her team from these industries as “the best of the best.” It is part of her rejuvenation of the Crivelli business. She bought the business for her love of the coffee, but Debra is quick to point out that great coffee doesn’t sell itself. With such a great product behind her, she’s been focusing her efforts on creating a strong business model that will see Crivelli stay in the top tier of its class.

“What we’ve done is to recognise that the business needs of clients are complex. We’re a full service provider in every segment we operate in,” Debra says. “What we’re doing is making everything as good as the coffee.”

While it’s a nice concept to think that the only thing that matters in great tasting coffee, Debra points out that in Australia, and Melbourne especially, competition is fierce, and she recognises that to succeed the company must excel in every aspect of their business.

“It’s nice to think that maybe in the ‘Old World’ all that mattered was great coffee,” Debra says. “But these days customers are looking for coffee that looks good, both in branding and presentation.”

For those who can’t make it into the office to see all the new faces, the most visible change at Crivelli is this new branding that’s been rolled out over the last few months. Their display advertising, and recently their packaging, has taken on a somewhat nostalgic tone, with Audrey Hepburn inspired photography of classic coffee drinking situations.

“It’s the best of the old and the new,” Debra says of the images inspiring the company’s new approach. “We like to call it elegant with a twist. We wanted to demonstrate that we were building from a tradition of excellence.”

In developing her campaign, Debra skipped the traditional marketing agencies, and instead drew on her network of friends. With a background in business, including work in the banking sector and an MBA from Columbia, Debra’s group of friends stem from an impressive list of business and marketing contacts. In refreshing Crivelli’s brand, Debra took advantage of these contacts.

“It can be a challenge to find out what café owners really want as opposed to what they tell us,” she says. Debra drew inspiration for her branding efforts from Burberry’s success, a UK clothing company that went from being practically invisible on the market to a top fashion label. 

A new package, however, is only the most superficial of the changes that Debra has brought about at Crivelli. Many companies, she points out, have mastered branding and great coffee and nevertheless failed. It’s at this point in the conversation that Debra’s point of difference in coming from a business background and not the coffee realm really starts to come out. With a white board in front of her and marker in hand, Debra quickly sketches out a business map of the Australian coffee industry at large, from boutique roasters to the top selling brands, pointing out where she sees everyone sitting in the spectrum, and explaining why.

“Coffee is only one tenth of what customers look for. If you come in with only good coffee, you’re going to get hammered,” she says. “What we’re doing now is tackling each part of our business. We want customers to see a multi-dimensional company.”

With customer service in mind, part of the new dimensions that Crivelli is taking on include an allied service company that will ensure cafés are provided with service that would match any independent service company available on the market.

Another dimension is a training school currently in the works. Delivering a high quality product in the bag is only one step, Debra notes, of ensuring customers are enjoying their coffee in the cup. With the coffee and company to service the machines covered off on, the training school will help ensure the cafés they supply receive maximum returns in teaching baristas to deliver strong taste profiles in every cup.

“If a customer likes a taste profile, then they come back for a second cup. And it’s in that second cup of coffee that you make all your money,” Debra says. “You need to train people not only to produce a high quality product, but to do it consistently.”

Speed is a second tangible outcome that Debra wants to achieve via the training school. “The higher the speed of the barista, the lower your costs are per cup,” she says. “If your barista can make 20 cups of coffee an hour instead of 15, that adds up to extra profit.”

Along with speed and consistency, one of the training school’s priorities will be to educate baristas and encourage them to take pride in their work.

“It’s not just about slewing out cups of coffee, but about having a passion in what you’re doing,” she says. 

Debra is currently working with an independent trainer to develop the school and training materials, and like with everything Crivelli takes on, the process has been gradual and careful.

Crivelli will also continue its contract roasting operations, but here again Debra has been expanding their services to match what’s being asked for by the market, advising them on a range of issues to ensure they value add wherever they can. 

“Our staff need to be as sophisticated as our clients want them to be,” she notes. Debra sees her approach as a “big business” mentality operating on a smaller scale, aided by the fact that most of her staff have come from much larger companies. In this approach, Debra is confident her staff can handle the scale of her operations while delivering high quality service. Her key accounts manager, for instance, came over from the entertainment industry and was responsible for looking after film and computer games sales. Although her experience with coffee is minimal, at the end of the day she notes that she comes across the same client issues, and she’s easily carrying over her skills in client management.

In another example, Crivelli’s head of customer service came from a major shoe manufacturer. Debra notes her experience on such a large scale has been vital in managing their databases, bringing the same disciplined approach over to Crivelli.

This new approach isn’t just about ensuring maximum current returns, but also putting Crivelli in a good position to grow as the market will inevitably demand, Debra says. Along with echoing the growing belief that conglomeration in the Australian coffee industry is inevitable, Debra notes that she sees the coffee industry becoming “bi-modal”, similar to the travel industry. She explains that many travel agencies have gone bust with online bookings, however some travel agents still find work in booking longer flights. It’s in this sense that the travel industry operates in two modes, both online and via agents.  

Debra sees the coffee industry moving along the same direction. One mode of the industry will operate at the very high volume “commodity” end, an area that will be dominated by major players who sell acceptable coffee in very high volumes. At the other end will be micro-roasters with high quality coffee who attract a small but loyal following, with minimal overheads.

“The market will force us to either get bigger, or move into a niche,” she notes. She predicts that many mid-sized roasters will be bought by the major players, although she does see some room in the market for those middle roasters to thrive. As for what factors will decide who will be left standing, Debra notes that with so many outstanding coffees out there, it’ll be about a lot more than just the beans. Debra is confident Crivelli’s move towards multi-layered customer service will keep her at the top.

“We can’t compete on price – when you compete on price the biggest players will always win,” she says. “You see a lot of unsustainable practices going on out there just to pay the next bill. We’re not going to do that.”