BeanScene Magazine

The exterior of the renovated warehouse that’s home to the MAP headquarters in South Melbourne for most wouldn’t warrant a second glance.

But step inside and take in the astounding modern architecture, and the space is a glaring example of the long-standing maxim not to judge a book by its cover. A white runway lines the path to the receptionist’s table, framed by cathedral ceilings exploding with natural light. A retro utility truck cut in half serves as a display area for the company’s products and sits next to a modern café set-up and a refreshing open plan office space.

Make your way up the open spiral-like staircase and you find yourself in Map founder and owner, Pitzy Folk’s loft-like office. The huge space incorporates a larger-than- life wooden boardroom table, along with a set of plush leather couches. It is here that I learn that, much like the Map headquarters building, not to form my impressions of Pitzy too quickly. Behind his warm and friendly manner is the sharp intelligence of an ambitious businessman, not afraid of addressing one of the Australian coffee industry’s most taboo subjects. That is that the coffee industry, like any, is an exercise in money-making and to say that you’re “just about the coffee” has become a cliché.

“It’s a given that you start off with the best, everyone is saying that,” he says, with the slightest hint of exasperation. “It is the next steps that make your business.”

These may be strong words, but coming from someone who has built Map into a national player in the market in just five and a half years, Pitzy is in a good position to say them.

Having worked in hospitality for most of his career, he’s had a long relationship with coffee. He was looking to finance a business, and with a friend he started up Map with the initial goal of sourcing fine pantry items from all over the globe, such as tinned tomatoes, olive oils and so on. While he started off as a passive observer, he took an active role in 2006 and rebuilt the company with a renewed focus on coffee, all the while still following the business’ initial vision of seeking out the best the world had to offer.

“We asked ourselves, ‘how can we make the best coffee?’. We wanted to guarantee consistency, and while we could do this in Australia, we had some connections in Italy so we looked there,” he says.

"We needed large quantities, but didn’t want to buy from global giants who batch roast. Different to all the others, we have our own roaster in Naples who roasts weekly.” 

In deciding to bring in coffee from Italy, Pitzy notes that establishing proper infrastructure was vital to ensuring quality. Transportation issues, naturally, were of concern. Map employs nitrogen flush technology to the coffee after roasting to allow for an extended shelf life.

From there, what served as Map’s point of distinction was Pitzy’s plans for a national company right from the start, rather than starting off small and trying to grow. With these large ambitions, Map set up offices in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane, and has since set up an office in Perth.

“We’re not a boutique roaster, we’re a large roaster… My vision in the early days was that we had to be a national player if we wanted to work with the corporates,” says Pitzy. “This was how we were going to service places like Albany, with a network of service agents.” 

Today, Map has proven successful at servicing businesses around the country and Pitzy takes much pride in not only stocking top cafés, but coming up with solutions for corporate offices, along with large chain retail stores situated in regional areas all over the country. Map’s goal in all these cases extends beyond just providing great coffee and works to ensure these business increase their sales.

“We’re really a business partnership. Our business is to help customers grow their business. As a team, you get a lot of help from us,” says Pitzy. “When we’re working with a café we need to get their sales up to increase their profit. If I can do that, then I’ve done my job.”

In this respect, Pitzy notes that different approaches are needed for different businesses.  “If you’re a little café serving 10 kilograms a week, you have different problems than a café serving 200 kilograms a week.”

He points to one of the company’s major clients, a large chain retail store with locations all over the country, both in major cities and small towns.

“Can you imagine the logistics to service a client like that?” he asks. “You need to train and service people in really remote communities. We’re trying to ensure that any café can serve good coffee, no matter where they are.”

Moving into the machinery side of providing bean to cup solutions has been a big step for Map, working with clients like major banks in the lucrative corporate market. While, as Pitzy points out, he would love to “put a barista in every bank,” financially it just wouldn’t work and so, Map distributes coffee machines which use various options to cater to the client’s needs.

Map has recently taken a big step forward in moving into the single-serve, or capsule, market that is making headlines worldwide as one of the fastest growing segments in the coffee industry.

“It’s a worldwide trend, it’s really a growth area,” says Pitzy. He notes that he started looking into the market when he was approached by a large retail outlet to find a coffee solution where they could sell both the machines and coffee.

What makes the capsule market especially lucrative and fiercely competitive, is that not only is there profit from the sale of machines. When a customer buys a machine, they are then tied to a company in continuing to buy the coffee capsules. In the US, Green Mountain Coffee has seen its shares skyrocket with their Keurig system, taking an 80 per cent share of the market. In Europe, Nestlé SA took a rival to court to try and prevent them from selling capsules that were compatible with their machines.

Pitzy is now looking for his share of the Australian market, in creating a blend specifically designed for his home turf.

“We understand the market, this is who we are,” he comments. With Australians often preferring milk-based coffee, Map’s blends are stronger and they also offer a decaffeinated blend. Map will also be the first Australian supplier to provide a direct-to-retail hot chocolate capsule and will offer machines with automatic milk frothers, that both heat and froth the milk, that they are importing out from Holland.

Among all these ambitious business plans, Pitzy has maintained a focus on his and his employees’ quality of life with a rather innovative workplace addition. Continue exploring the renovated MAP headquarters and you’ll find a vegetable garden bursting with life. Walk out back and lining the parking lot is the start of an impressive orchard, filled with lemon, lime, pomegranate and even avocado trees, among others. Here, you’ll find the second half of the utility truck, which serves as an impromptu gardening shed.

Pitzy has employed the same chef for the last 30 years, and she comes into the office weekly to cook lunch for the Map staff, from their own very-locally grown produce. “We’re a different company like that because we really focus on that passion of quality of life,” says Pitzy. “The people you surround yourself with should share that passion with you.”