This year marks the fourth edition of Grinders Coffee’s Immersion event, where the roaster invites some of its loyal customers from around the country for networking, education, and MICE.
For a business to reach the scale of Grinders Coffee, it must constantly be learning and refining what it does.
While that mentality, for most businesses, is most often applied to what directly impacts the profit and loss statement, it’s also how Grinders approaches its customer support – like its Immersion program.
Now in its fourth year, this year’s program brought 18 of the roaster’s most loyal customers to Melbourne.
Although the first edition of Immersion was limited to a handful of Victorian customers, Grinders has scaled the program considerably since its launch. In the last three years, customers from every state and territory across the country have taken part.
“The reason we created the program was to give something back to our customers and provide over and above support, helping to elevate their businesses, other than just providing the great coffee training and support we offer all our customers,” says Grinders Brand Ambassador Jonathan Goldthorpe.
“It’s a great way to also grow Grinders brand advocates through our customers and to showcase to the café and coffee industry just how much value we place on supporting our customers.”
The program’s 2025 edition featured keynote talks from the likes of Yolk Group’s Keiran Spiteri, EXPAT. Roasters Founder, and former Grinders National Coffee Ambassador, Shae Macnamara, as well as Digital Picnic CEO Cherie Clonan. While education remains a critical focus, Jonathan says creating networking opportunities had the most impact.
“We spoke to our customers through our sales teams to get feedback on what we’ve done in previous years, and the thing that keeps coming back is they love having the opportunity to come together and network with other customers, in addition to the tour of the roastery and QA lab where they can actually see how their coffee is produced with consistency and care,” he says.
“This year, we really wanted to focus on getting more customers through, and boost networking opportunities. Typically, we’ve had a networking dinner and there have been a lot of breaks throughout the day to encourage interaction. Customers have loved that part of the event and have remained in contact afterwards to provide support on the tough issues that café face every day.
“We really wanted to encourage that this year, so we got them in a night early, and customers from the same state all went to dinner with each other. They still had their full day in Fairfield at the roastery and some education sessions, and then a big team dinner.”
A key change in this year’s edition of Immersion has been the creation of The Immersion Podcast, which Jonathan believes will give the roaster a stronger touchpoint with not only its partners around Australia, but the entire coffee community.
“The Immersion has always been about deepening the connection between Grinders and our café partners through creating a genuine experience,” says Jonathan.
“As culture shifts and the way people consume information evolves, we need to meet our partners where they already are. We’re extending the program into a format that can reach more people, more often.”
This year’s edition also saw a return to scheduling the Immersion event around the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE), where Grinders was one of a string of high-profile, high-quality roasters showcasing its wares at the Roasters Playground.
That decision to schedule it around MICE was no accident, says Jonathan, who says it was an added benefit for Immersion attendees to be able to attend the expo.
“All our customers love coming into the roastery and doing all the networking, but a lot of them are owner-operated venues and it can be tough to pull managers away from them – it’s really difficult to actually get people to want to commit to something like this unless it’s an amazing experience,” says Jonathan.
“We wanted to make sure we had the double whammy of MICE alongside our roastery tour and educational sessions, so they could also see the equipment innovation, trends, and speaker sessions at the expo.
“We wanted to help reinvigorate their passion for their venues and inspire them to go back and implement some of the trends and changes they’ve seen and to help grow their business in this tough economy that is affecting even the strongest hospitality venues.”
The desire to help those customers is the cornerstone of what Grinders does not only with its Immersion program each year, but through its customer support networks.
Owned by Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, it has the power of one of the world’s biggest service and distribution networks behind it.
“Being part of CCEP, we have unmatched coverage across the country – deliveries, technicians, and support teams in every region. It is a major advantage and a key differentiator for us as a coffee roaster”.
“It’s so tough to make it not sound cheesy and cliché, but we always talk about the people in our business. We’ve got about 40 people in field sales that go out and support our customers around the country, and they’re all passionate and knowledgeable about coffee and genuinely want to help.
“The passionate coffee people in this business are encouraged to go out and support customers, spend time with them, review their business, do training, and this program showcases how yes, we are a big coffee business, but that doesn’t stop us from being a thoughtful and caring coffee business that is committed to helping our customers grow.”
For more information, visit grinderscoffee.com.au
This article appears in the April 2026 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
