After three decades in the Australian market, Piazza D’Oro has been relaunched to reflect the contemporary coffee landscape and the brand’s continued quest for consistent quality.
Piazza D’Oro is one of the Australian coffee scene’s unlikely trailblazers. The Sydney-based roaster has become a household name since it was launched in 1991, supplying hundreds of thousands of kilograms of quality beans to cafés, restaurants, and other hospitality businesses across the country.
Despite its prominence, few people know the brand laid the foundations for the barista competitions that would propel the industry and coffee as a profession. In 2000, Piazza D’Oro hosted Australia’s first formal public barista competition, inviting skilled professionals to showcase their talents and be judged by a panel of experts.
“Piazza D’Oro has a rich heritage in Australia. Throughout its history, it has pushed the boundaries of the local coffee market and helped to shape its path,” says Virginia Marsh, Piazza D’Oro Marketing Director.
“It’s one of those brands a lot of people know. With ongoing support over the years, it has always had very strong awareness in the market.”
Launched in the early days of Aussie café culture by established European coffee company Jacob Douwe Egberts (JDE), the brand’s mission from its inception was to make quality coffee accessible to all.
“Being part of JDE, we have a rich history. The name Piazza D’Oro was inspired by our European roots. ‘Piazza’ in Italian means ‘public square’, a place where communities come together to connect, often around a beverage such as coffee. For us, bringing communities together is what it’s always been about,” says Virginia.
“In the early 1990s, there was a lot of influences from Italy in markets around the world. With Piazza D’Oro, we were able to blend the expertise of JDE with Australia’s fast-paced coffee community. As the brand has grown and adapted to the country’s evolving café culture over the years, we’ve ensured the quality of our blends has remained consistent.”
Since the early days, this focus on maintaining quality has been made possible by having full control over the sourcing and roasting of the beans, which are both completed by the team at the Piazza D’Oro roastery in the heart of Sydney.
The modern coffee consumer
Throughout its 33-year history, Piazza D’Oro has witnessed coffee’s evolving trends.
As a result of its constant market research and tracking of consumer preferences, in 2022 the brand decided it was time to refresh its look.
“Our original packaging was entrenched in our European heritage, which resonated with our customers when it was first launched. However, tastes evolve and we knew we needed to update the look of our products to appeal to the modern coffee drinker,” says Virginia.
“Ahead of the rebrand, we did a lot of work with our customers to understand what motivated and appealed to them. It was important to sense check our new ideas with our audience to ensure we were heading in the right direction. They were on the journey with us and very supportive throughout the process.”
The key was to capture the timeless elements of the original design while injecting a dose of creativity.
“Our objective was to drive relevancy to today’s consumer and reaffirm our position as a leading coffee brand. It was important not to lose sight of some of the distinctive assets of the brand, such as the logo. To ensure consistency for our long-term partners and customers, we also kept many of the key navigation aspects such as the blend names and colours,” says Virginia.
“Our brand is very much about looking forward to the future, and that’s what inspired the refreshed design.”
From the warm terracotta palette to the abstract artwork, the new look signifies Piazza D’Oro’s harmony of European heritage and contemporary Australian café culture. According to the team, the layered colours in the gusset of the coffee bags represents the artful blending and layering of coffee flavours, with a subtle nod to the coastlines of both Australia and Italy.
“The terracotta colour embodies the warmth and passion we have as a creative brand, while also being another nod to the geography of Australia that we’re so proud of,” says Virginia.
“Now we’ve launched this fantastic new look, it’s all about communicating the values of our brand to our customers old and new.”
Exploring flavour
One of Piazza D’Oro’s founding principles is providing a blend for every cup, and as the tastes of Australian coffee drinkers have expanded so has its range. While its core blends Mezzo (a medium-dark roast with flavours of milk chocolate, caramel, and toffee), Forza (a sweet dark roast with notes of dark chocolate and cinnamon), and Colombian (a single origin with flavours of caramel, toffee, and citrus) have remained mostly unchanged over the decades to provide consistency for its long-term customers, the collection has increased to include a certified organic coffee (flavours of caramel, milk chocolate and honey sweetness).
Its most recent addition is specialty coffee Dolce, a blend of high-quality Arabica beans from Colombia, Brazil, and Ethiopia. The team describe it as having beautiful citrus acidity, with notes of caramel and almond to deliver a lightly syrupy mouthfeel.
According to Virginia, introducing a specialty roast to the collection demonstrates the brand’s commitment to innovation and its understanding of the needs of the Australian market.
“We see ourselves as a coffee democracy: it’s all about giving people the kind of coffee they love,” she says.
“With Dolce, we wanted to create a roast that sits between the traditional medium-dark roast and contemporary light roasts. We paid careful attention to the roast profile so we could deliver a unique blend that performs extremely well in the cup.”
Respecting people and planet
While perfecting the rebrand and developing new roasts has been a priority for the Piazza D’Oro team over the past few years, for Rick Davy, JDE Quality and Sustainability Manager ANZ, continuing the brand’s environmental commitments has remained paramount.
“As part of JDE, the world’s largest pure-play coffee and tea company, we have a responsibility to have sustainability at the core of everything we do,” says Rick.
“For Piazza D’Oro, that starts right at the source when selecting our beans and continues until the coffee reaches the consumer. We are committed to ensuring our beans not only deliver our quality standards but also that our practices respect the people and planet we rely on.”
The brand’s approach to sustainability is brought to life through its Common Grounds program, which is based on three ethical pillars: responsible sourcing, minimising footprint, and connecting people. This holistic approach covers the whole value chain, from the farmers that grow the coffee at origin to the café partners in Australia that serve it.
As part of the program, JDE is currently running more than 60 projects across the world. These have been developed to make a positive impact and support farmers, regions, and communities, from an economic, social, and environmental perspective.
“An example is our project in Honduras to provide childcare for coffee farm workers. Typically, this is a region where labour is brought in for the picking season and workers will often bring their children with them. This has the potential to create some safety concerns. Through the Common Grounds program, we’re building childcare centres so the pickers have somewhere safe to leave their children while they work,” says Rick.
“Furthermore, these centres will not only provide safety but also education. We’ve worked with World Vision and local partners to establish 11 facilities to date, which has made a meaningful difference in those communities.”
Closer to home, Rick says the business is doing extensive work on mapping its emissions across the supply chain so it can work towards its ambitious carbon-reduction targets.
“Our roastery in Sydney operates a certified environmental management system, which means we have programs in place to achieve targets such as reduction of waste and minimising energy usage,” he says.
Such targets are embedded in the Common Grounds program and part of the company’s efforts to secure the future of coffee and continue sharing its blends with the people of Australia.
“When I look back over the past 10 years, I’ve seen really big change in the industry and it’s been encouraging to see how much sustainability has moved forward. Across the coffee community, a focus on emissions is really coming to the fore and that will only continue over the next decade,” says Rick.
“What’s interesting about the sustainability space is that our emissions are part of our customers’ emissions, so in order to meet net zero targets we need to collaborate. We’re already seeing that start to happen, working closely alongside some of our key clients to share data and support each other.”
This desire to go above and beyond for its customers is ingrained in Piazza D’Oro’s philosophy. With its longevity in the market, the brand has a lot of knowledge to share and has forged many strong relationships that span decades.
“Our team are passionate about getting to know each customer so they can provide the tailored support they need,” says Virginia.
“We pride ourselves on being a big family, and our hospitality partners are part of that. Being a global business, we have great intel, training, marketing support and the ability to offer quality equipment. Paired with our local approach and Sydney roastery, we’re able to offer the complete package.”
For more information, click here.
This article appears in the October/November 2024 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.