On the back of a recent double Golden Bean win and a string of exciting new collaborations, The Bean Cartel Founders Stacy and Alison Visser reveal how they scaled their business, grew their team, and exceeded their growth goals.
Despite experiencing one of the most challenging years for roasters in the Australian coffee sector’s history, over the past 18 months Melbourne’s The Bean Cartel has achieved a series of impressive milestones.
At the 2025 Golden Bean Awards, the team picked up gold medals in the Espresso and Filter categories, adding to their 2024 haul of eight medals which included a gold in the Milk-Based category.
As their trophy cabinet has expanded, so has the roaster’s reach. In July, The Bean Cartel was invited to be the inaugural roaster to feature at Melbourne Airport’s new Coffee Capital installation, which sees a rotating lineup of Victorian roasters take up a seasonal residency. The brand has also recently established a growing market of wholesale partners in South Australia.
This company growth has not only warranted an expansion of its Notting Hill roasting facility but also its team of passionate coffee professionals. While some other coffee businesses have struggled to recover from the ripple effects of COVID-19, The Bean Cartel has achieved 300 per cent revenue growth since 2021 and forecasts a further 20 to 30 per cent increase by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.
Competitive edge
So, how have Founders Stacy and Alison Visser achieved this feat, and how can other coffee businesses learn from their successes?
“When COVID-19 hit, at first we lost a 1000 kilograms a week in sales. I never thought that four years later we’d have tripled our revenue. It’s quite incredible. Despite what has been a seriously tough year with the supply issues we’ve faced, we’re still looking at great growth for 2025/26,” says Stacy.
“Achieving milestones such as Golden Bean has been one of the keys to our success, not just because of the platform they provide but also the pressure it puts on us to ensure the quality of our product remains excellent. For example, we don’t want someone trying our beans at Coffee Capital for the first time and saying, ‘this is average’.
“The team are very competitive and I think that comes from the top. That external pressure drives our innovation and commitment to high standards. There’s been a lot of average green beans around lately due to supply issues, but we do the work behind the scenes so the quality of our award-winning blends remains high.”
The Bean Cartel’s competitive team have also been instrumental in the business’ accomplishments, according to Stacy and Alison. They say gradually bringing together an A-team of skilled people who care about coffee and the brand has been a somewhat instinctive process.
“You can have a great product and brand, but if you’ve got ordinary staff it’s definitely not going to work,” says Stacy.
“It’s taken baby steps, but we’re at a point now where we have the team we’ve always wanted, and we wouldn’t have achieved any of this without them. We’ve become quite good at working out who will fit well with the rest of the team – they’ve got to be quite tough, willing to take on feedback, and adapt to our pace.”
While personality traits are important, Co-Founder and Director Alison says finding people who can fill any skill gaps within the company is the main goal.
“Early on, we realised we were trying to do everything ourselves, but we can’t possibly have all the skills needed for the company to thrive. We needed people who have specialist abilities in the areas that Stacy and I don’t. We can’t be experts in roasting, marketing, business strategy, sales, latte art, and everything else we cover as a business,” she says.
“We have never advertised for new staff, which speaks to the strength of our brand reputation. We get a lot of people approaching us and, usually, we don’t have a role for them to fill, but if they’re a great fit we’ll often bite the bullet and bring them onboard anyway.”
Practising patience
In 2022, The Bean Cartel rolled out a full rebrand that aimed to bring something fresh, colourful, and distinctly unique to the Australian coffee scene. This epic undertaking was another of the building blocks that paved the way to the roaster’s accomplishments.
“We knew rebranding was going to be key to taking The Bean Cartel to the next level. However, much of its success was actually due to patience. We had been working on the rebrand through the pandemic, but we waited until the lockdowns had passed and we had some clean air to relaunch,” says Stacy.
“We also needed the right people to bring our vision to life. Finding our illustrator Alejandro Giraldo who is based in Medellin, Colombia, was a long process, but it was worth the wait as it brought the whole thing together.”
Learning to be patient has also come in handy in other parts of the business. While it can be tempting to jump at every opportunity that comes their way, the Founders say knowing when the time is right is essential.
“At the start of the year, we had some very big clients that wanted to come onboard. Due to the issues with green-bean supply and the fact there was little to no spot coffee in Australia, we had to be patient and decide that we couldn’t bring these clients in at that moment,” Stacy says.
“We had the opportunity to expand fast, however, doing so would have meant we weren’t able to adequately supply our existing clients, and I wasn’t prepared to do that.”
Embracing diversification
As the international coffee market continues to experience volatility and some cafés in Australia still face challenges from shifting consumer habits, The Bean Cartel has looked to diversification to continue its growth journey.
“The market is still quite volatile and a lot of cafés are being sold, which leaves roasters in a difficult position as you’re not sure if the venue will stay with you,” says Stacy.
“Therefore, we’ve started to diversify. We’re seeing an uptake in more stable markets such as independent grocery stores and corporate clients. We’ve also stepped up our online game, targeting at-home consumers who appreciate great quality coffee.”
For those looking to learn from The Bean Cartel’s success and expand their own business, Stacy shares the words of one of his former mentors.
“I’m going slowly because I’m in a hurry,” he says.
“It’s a bit of a corny phrase, but it has really stuck with me. I was always trying to get out of the gate at 100 miles per hour, but rushing isn’t a sensible way to do business. Hold off, be patient, and surround yourself with the right people.”
For more information, visit thebeancartel.com.au
This article appears in the October 2025 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
