From opening his famous coffee cart to running one of Australia’s largest coffee companies, Michael Rababi reveals the credos that helped him unlock success.
Michael Rababi’s journey in coffee started with a simple premise – he didn’t want to have a boss.
Since then, the Founder of Di Pacci Coffee Company has built one of Australia’s largest coffee equipment providers and has become so synonymous with his business that ‘Mik Di Pacci’ has become his well-earned nickname.
His more than two decades in coffee have taken him from manning a coffee cart outside a bank in Marrickville, to owning five cafés, to building an Australian-based global coffee empire, with operations also in four other countries.
It’s a journey defined by grit, tenacity, and, by Mik’s own admission, more than a pinch of luck. But underneath it all there is a sound strategy, held up by the key pillars of customer service, good relationships, and hard work that have helped guide him to this point.
Taking the leap
After initially planning to go into business in the early 2000s with his brother-in-law – who instead decided to pursue a supermarket job – Mik got his hands on a coffee cart and laid the foundations for what would one day become Di Pacci Coffee Company.
“It all started when I was about 18 years old, and I didn’t really want to work for anyone,” says Mik.
“I bought a stainless-steel coffee cart and found out from my brother-in-law’s mum that a new National Bank building had been opened in Marrickville, but there wasn’t anywhere close to it to get coffee.
“I walked in, found the owner, knocked on his door, and told him I wanted to open a little coffee cart downstairs – there was a perfect spot literally right in front of the building.
“He just said that was ok – we didn’t speak about rent or anything. So, I went and packed my car, loaded the trailer, and set up.”
Within six months of setting up his cart on Marrickville Road back in 2003, Mik was selling 80 kilograms of coffee per week. He quickly outgrew the cart, so he set up a café, then another, then another.
“I ended up running five cafés – Marrickville, Parramatta, Ryde, Leichardt, Greenacre, and Hurstville,” he says.
“There’s not an exact formula to it; it’s just hard work and continuing to keep going. When I had the first café, I wasn’t even thinking about supplying coffee, but I kept getting asked by people – I ended up doing about 500 kilos per week wholesale. Then people started asking me to help them get machines.
“I saw someone in Melbourne selling a bunch of machines, so I bought a one-way ticket there and bought 20 of them, he thought I was joking. I had nowhere to put them but I just made it work. From there, we just organically grew.”
Once his roasting and equipment supply business started to pick up, Mik sold off four of his five cafés, but held onto Marrickville for a while. After all, it was his home.
When Mik speaks, he references “being lucky” more than once – whether it be with a helpful bank owner allowing him to set up his cart or finding the right people to help him take his cart, then cafés, then Di Pacci Coffee Company to the next level.
While everyone needs some luck, it’s clear that Mik has typically been the type of person who has helped luck come to him through sheer hard work – rain, hail, or shine.
“There was a point I was managing the café from 4am until 5pm, then I’d go next door to Di Pacci Coffee Company and I’d make our chocolate sauce, I’d do deliveries, I’d roast the coffee, pack the van, service the machines out the back, and do installations,” he says.
“There were two occasions where I worked for two days straight with no break, and once I did it for three days. I never had a day off or missed a day in 15 years. I was even in hospital once and was told I needed kidney stone surgery.
“I ripped out the canula and legged it to the shop to open up and serve my customers. I forgot I was even sick by 11am, I was that focused on making the coffees, and I never ended up getting the surgery.”
Other anecdotes, while less dramatic than Mik’s daring escape from hospital, were no less important to keeping his customers happy.
“There were times when I’d be all packed up. There was a massage parlour across the road that was one of my best customers, there were 30 employees who would order coffees and sandwiches every morning,” he recalls.
“Every now and then I’d be halfway home and they’d ring me and ask for 20 coffees, so I’d do a u-turn and go back and make them their coffees. Not for the $60 or whatever it cost at the time, but so they didn’t go anywhere else.”
Because, whether it be a small business across the road with 30 staff, or a customer that comes in and orders a coffee once a day, every relationship matters, according to Mik.
“Keeping customers is so important. Many people don’t realise that someone who comes in and orders a $5 coffee every day is close to $2000 a year,” says Mik.
“If that turns into two large coffees and a muffin, that could be close to $10,000 a year. If you let yourself have a mentality that a single customer doesn’t matter, then you’re not going to survive in this industry which has as much competition as it does.
“It’s not about one sale, then see you later, it’s about building relationships. They tell their friends, who tell their friends. That’s how I’ve run every business I’ve had up until now.”
Built on trust
At the time of writing, Di Pacci Coffee Company spans almost the entirety of Australia, with operations in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Port Macquarie, and the Gold Coast, as well international presences in New Zealand, Singapore, the United States (US), and United Kingdom (UK).
That organic growth has been elevated through Mik knowing the right people for the right job, with many of those closely held relationships starting as business contacts.
“I had a really good supplier in Melbourne who was leaving the business he was working for, so I opened up in Melbourne and hired him to run the showroom there,” says Mik.
“In Perth, I had someone ordering coffee off me who asked if I could hire him. I told him if he could build up the volume to a couple of hundred kilos per week, I’d hire him. In the end, he built up to almost 400 kilograms.
“We opened in Port Macquarie because my graphic designer, who was from there, wanted to move back home with his wife. Now, we have a team of four people there who do about 400 to 500 kilos per week and sell 50 kilos a week from a little coffee cart, and we’ve been set up there for about five years.”
It’s the same story with Di Pacci’s international operations.
“New York happened by accident, I was at the New York Coffee Expo and I happened to meet someone from Slayer. We had a chat and I told him I was going to visit my dad’s friend in Brooklyn, who owned a store called Little Tripoli,” continues Mik.
“Unfortunately, my dad’s friend had passed away, but I met his nephew who was running the store. We hit it off, he came to Milan with me, and we set up Di Pacci USA so he could run it for me.
“I had someone from Singapore annoying me for a $1 part, so I ordered it and shipped it to him. He kept buying parts off me after that, and then coffee machines.
“He eventually moved to the UK and told me he wanted to start selling coffee, so he started running Di Pacci UK – and it all started from a $1 spare part.”
It’s maintaining those relationships with good, hardworking people aligned on the Di Pacci vision that Mik says has been critical not only to him, but to the entire business.
“Without the right people, you’re not going anywhere no matter what you do. I’ve been blessed to have great managers in all these locations, as well as in Queensland,” he says.
“Even Domenic Carnavale, my GM, he’s the only person I ever worked for other than my uncle, when I was working in an ice cream shop for about six months making juices and coffees before I opened my cart.”
Whether it be to a café owner, roaster, or anyone else in the coffee industry, Mik’s advice is simple.
“Just work hard,” he says.
“A spare part can turn into lifetime friendships or business partnerships. Treat every customer, whether it’s a $1 coffee or a million-dollar deal well.
“Treat everyone, from the cleaner to the CEO, with the same level of respect. Pay your bills on time, don’t burn bridges, and go out of your way to be genuine and honest.”
Owning the coffee ecosystem
From private-label and wholesale roasting, through to cafés and retail, all the way to equipment hire and maintenance, Di Pacci Coffee Company has its finger on the pulse of all things coffee.
The latest development of this was the opening of The Roasting Club in Roselands, Sydney, that Mik revealed in 2025 as a $25 million facility, offering all things roasting and training.
“We do contract roasting, private label roasting, equipment hire, Q Grader courses and green bean grading at the Roasting Club,” says Mik.
“It’s been a great success since it opened last year. A lot of large roasters utilise it, probably five of Australia’s top 10, plus a lot of smaller roasters who do a few hundred kilos a week.
“To the best of my knowledge, we’re also the only practising registered training organisation (RTO) coffee company in Australia. We do food safety courses, supervisor courses, barista training, and now we’re adding a few more modules into our scope.
“It’s so good to be in the community helping people with their coffee businesses, whether that’s roasting, training, or equipment.”
Despite all his success, Mik is like a shark – in the best kind of way. Always moving forward and sniffing out the next opportunity.
“I think I’ve done almost everything I can, I don’t really sleep and my phone doesn’t stop,” Mik says with a smile.
“The only thing I can really do now is look at maybe buying a farm somewhere like PNG or South America and get closer to the process of actually growing the coffee.
“Buying a coffee machine manufacturing facility overseas, somewhere like Spain, Portugal, or Romania could also be on the cards. We import equipment from the UK, Portugal, Spain, Italy, China, and Romania, so it could be nice to have our own line of machines in the future.”
This article appears in the June 2026 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
