Coffee packed with a punch

A decade-long partnership between a nimble regional coffee brand and its behind-the-scenes roasting ally is unlocking new growth pathways across Australia’s specialty scene.

Complacency has never been part of the DONE Coffee playbook. After 22 years in business, supplying dozens of cafés and wholesale customers across New South Wales’ Mid North Coast and beyond, the brief remains the same.

“We like to keep it simple and have a bit of fun,” says Founder Stew Clark. “But we’ll never say, ‘this is all we do.’ When people come to us, we work hard to understand their specific needs – and usually we can meet them or even do something a bit different.

“Our goal is to help our café partners present the best version of themselves, so we can help them build their coffee sales – which makes us all succeed in the long run.”

That philosophy only works if the infrastructure behind it is equally up to the task. In DONE Coffee’s case, the confidence to make those promises is underpinned by a decade-long partnership with Espressology, one of Australia’s largest private label roasters.

Around 12 years ago, DONE began searching for a roasting team that could grow with the business – delivering consistency while remaining flexible enough to evolve as client demands shifted.

Relationships are everything in coffee: rather than meeting at the Espressology base in Sydney’s west, those early meetings took place in the outdoors, with swags rolled out and conversations about blends and business held around a campfire. It set the foundation for a partnership built on transparency and trust.

“The big thing with Ged Ryan (CEO) and the guys at Espressology is there’s transparency from go to whoa – and nothing’s ever a drama, it’s why I now consider them some of my best mates.”

Today, a large part of that relationship hinges on Espressology’s investment in the Trimatt ColourStar AQ printing system, a piece of Melbourne-made equipment that has become central to DONE’s ability to stay nimble and strengthen the relationships with its own café partners.

The Colourstar AQ enables short-run, on-demand printing of coffee bags and cartons, removing the need for large, upfront minimum orders typically associated with pre-printed packaging. It’s the reason why the machine is gaining traction in many coffee companies across Australia.

For coffee businesses like DONE, it means their wholesale customers can explore co-branded runs, seasonal blends, event-based specials or custom designs without over-committing.

“For our four main blends, we use pre-printed roll-stock packaging that runs through Espressology’s Propac form-fill-seal packing system. That works well for higher-volume lines,” says Stew.

“But for our lower volume blends, or when a client wants something different or their own branding – that’s where Espressology’s Trimatt printing system comes into play. We just send the artwork through and they design it, format it and print it straight onto the bags as required.

“It has opened up a whole lot of doors for us, allowing us to do something a little bit different for our clients.”

It’s another feather in the DONE Coffee cap. What began as a regional wholesale supplier has evolved into a multifaceted operation spanning concept design, equipment installation, staff training, consulting, and distribution. It supplies everyone from independent coastal cafés to schools, TAFEs and accounts as far afield as Lord Howe Island, Brisbane, Geelong and Torquay.

E-commerce sales are also accelerating. Partially due to the flexibility of the ColourStar AQ, DONE can run single origins through its online store, produce Easter or Christmas specials, or create small-batch blends for events and occasions such as Father’s Day.

If the business wanted to activate one of its ambassadors – for example, Hudson Young of the Canberra Raiders and his partner Kelsea Peck – a limited-edition blend could be produced quickly and in controlled volumes.

“It could just be a small run,” Stew says. “You can make it as large or as small as you like.

“Espressology also prints our own DONE-branded boxes on the Trimatt printer. Our logo has a silhouette of pine trees with a sunset in the background, but we can easily swap that out for a silhouette of someone fishing, golfing, surfing, camping, or whatever – we can change it up as much as we like.”

A top-tier investment

When Ged reflects on some of the big milestones in Espressology’s journey since its inception in 2008, the Trimatt ColourStar AQ ranks highly.

In fact, it’s one of the top two equipment investments the business has ever made. It’s a big statement for a piece of machinery that has a very particular – yet important – role within the broader contract roasting business.

“In the last five to seven years alone, it’s easily the best decision we’ve made in the business, purely down to the doors that it has opened,” he says.

Short-run, short-turnaround, instantaneous printing on coffee bags has been an ever-present problem in Australia’s coffee scene, comprising thousands of small-to-medium sized operators.

Solutions exist but achieving results that are also economical and high quality have only added to the challenge. The Trimatt ColourStar AQ was the solution Espressology had been seeking, elevating the service it could offer to customers finding their feet or seeking a bespoke option.

In many cases, he has seen it create a “stepping stone” for brand development.

Ged points to several cases where a café builds such a strong following, that other cafés have approached them to become their wholesale bean supplier. They’ve gone from running a single venue to a respected ‘roaster’ supplying both wholesale and retail.

Often, Espressology is the private label roaster behind-the-scenes, sourcing the beans, developing the roast profiles and blends – and using custom packaging printed on the ColourStar AQ to help the customer carve out a reputation.

“The barriers to entry to become a brand are now much lower thanks to the capabilities of the ColourStar AQ,” Ged says. “There are many excellent café operators out there today, but this allows you to capture that brand equity by putting it on your bag, helping to build customer loyalty or elevate a business into wholesale supply.

“When someone walks in and is served an excellent coffee and sees a bag with your branding on the counter, they’re going to start buying your coffee instead of going someplace else. It’s a bit of a romantic story, but I’ve seen it happen.”

In practical terms, that means Espressology’s customers no longer need to commit upfront to thousands of pre-printed bags produced offshore – a “daunting” experience for new operators. They’re also not tying up capital and storage for years. Instead, they can email artwork as a PDF, approve a sample, and run exactly the quantity they need.

For emerging operators testing the waters of private label or wholesale supply, Ged says that flexibility is key. It lowers risk, speeds up iteration, and allows branding to evolve alongside the business.

Beyond branding agility, the Trimatt has delivered significant operational efficiencies for Espressology itself – efficiencies that flow through to clients like DONE.

Traditionally, each wholesale brand would require pallets of pre-printed cartons and bags stored on-site. Multiply that by 40 or more clients and the warehouse footprint quickly balloons.

Due to the on-demand printing the ColourStar AQ affords, those SKUs can be printed as needed from a small base stock of plain cartons or bags. It also eliminates the need for manually placing sticker and labels on bags or boxes.

“Giving customers these options – where I’ve only got supply kraft and white bags, and then we can print and use them straight away – I’m not filling up 15 factories, and the customers is not having to invest thousands of dollars before they’ve made the case that the business is going to be successful. Or it allows you to experiment before giving the green light to rollout a new product,” Ged says.

“There’s no MOQ (minimum order quantity). If you want one bag, we’ll do one bag. In these cases, they haven’t spent any money until they sell that bag.”

The machine features an automated feeder, an angle-adjust print head for valved bags, and its organic pigment inks are waterproof and lightfast. It can print 120, one-kilogram bags per minute, at 1200 dots per inch print quality.

Even so, Ged says speed is not the primary advantage.

“Convenience and low MOQ definitely are. And the storage savings. Storage is everything for a contract manufacturer.”

With Espressology’s investment in the ColourStar AQ, a new door has swung open – one that could change the trajectory for both the business and clients like DONE Coffee.

“The key things for me are that it can act as that springboard, it gives café owners the equity they deserve and the chance to capture what they’ve built and grow from it,” he says.

“More often that not, a great coffee experience is due to the café owner/operator rather than the big brand name on the shelf, and this allows them to capture the benefit of that experience.

“Not all of them will take that step, but some do, and that’s often how they evolve into wholesalers. That’s one of the most transformative things about the Trimatt [ColourStar AQ] printer.”

For more information, visit www.trimatt.com