CMT’s Gianluca Colangeli discusses what goes into training the unsung heroes who keep the coffee industry moving.
For most people looking to get involved in the coffee industry, there is some kind of formal training option that can help them get their feet wet.
There are barista training programs, business certificates, foodservice qualifications, and all manner of other things that help someone learn to manage or contribute to a café or roastery, but there’s one critical cog of the industry that’s not well represented in this formal space.
The training of coffee machine technicians.
Coffee Machine Technologies (CMT) Founder John Colangeli has previously labelled the craft as “the industry’s unsung heroes” with the equipment provider’s team of 12 technicians often receiving up to 80 calls per week at peak times.
With no piece of equipment unbreakable, and no machine ever immune from faults, often a skilled technician is the only thing standing in the way of a great day behind the bar, or extended downtime and the loss of potential revenue.
Sidestepping professions
Many skills in the coffee industry transition well into different roles. Being an accomplished barista is a great skill to have as a venue manager. Understanding flavour profiles is critical to becoming an accomplished roaster. They’re often skills that beget skills.
Technicians though, according to CMT General Manager Gianluca Colangeli, sit outside this Venn diagram.
He says while he’s seen former baristas reskill themselves to become technicians, people with more specific technical backgrounds – who may already have forged a different career path – tend to fare best.
“To become a technician, it’s not just about simply jumping in, getting your feet wet, and then being good to go,” says Gianluca. “It really helps to have some sort of mechanical or engineering background. We know a lot of baristas who try to make the step to become technicians, and it is possible, but it can be tough.
“In any machine you have plumbing, hydraulics, electrical, and mechanical parts – there’s a massive spread of knowledge that you need to have. You’re obviously not going to come here with all of that, but if you have some experience in one or two of those areas then you can learn the other parts along with the components of the machine.
“We’ve had technicians come from the electrical industry, we’ve had different types of engineers, mechanics, and other trades – we had a motorbike mechanic start recently and he’s going really well.”
One positive about training new technicians, Gianluca believes, is the passion they have to make a career out of coffee.
“It’s something very different that you might not see too often. Obviously, in our industry we’re saturated with it, but for someone that’s outside, they might not realise it’s a proper career path,” says Gianluca.
“Then they jump into it and they fall in love with it. Often it starts with someone who loves coffee and has a passion for it, and then they take that step further and learn all the inner workings of the machines. It’s usually a very natural step.”
Becoming a master
How, then, does CMT find people with the potential to learn the craft? After all, as Gianluca says, “you can’t learn coffee machines from a book”. Budding technicians need to get their hands dirty while upholding the level of service customers expect from CMT.
“When we employ or start to train a technician, we begin the training process in the warehouse before they go on the road,” he says.
“It’s a case of throwing them in the deep end with a machine with a fault, with another technician next to them to guide them, one machine at a time until they build up the necessary experience.”
He says having John, who founded CMT back in 2004, to help teach is a luxury that isn’t lost on the more experienced team members.
“It’s extremely difficult to find a new technician if you’re looking to hire someone with experience, but John is probably one of the best technicians in Australia and has trained up a lot of our staff.
“That filters through to everyone. Even if John doesn’t have the time, or another technician is unavailable to train someone new, everyone trained here is capable of teaching. The power of staff behind our techs is also great, and that gives us an extra edge.”
including electricians, mechanics, and engineers. Image: CMT.
The CMT difference
Of those total 12 technicians, Gianluca says four are full-time in the workshop, with two working on domestic machines, and another two performing full in-house servicing and overhauling.
The other eight are out on the road full time.
CMT, however, also holds a distribution presence in Sydney, and offers its services to the whole of Australia.
Gianluca says CMT’s network of technicians spans the country, and many who operate outside of Victoria were even trained by John and the team.
That ability to find help Australia-wide, no matter the time or place, is an advantage almost unique to CMT.
“What we see as our major difference is we’re what we like to call a ‘centralised hub’. Any Melbourne-based or interstate roaster or café can come to us, and we have a network of people around Australia who we can organise to go to jobs,” says Gianluca.
“Even if it’s a Melbourne roaster who has a problem at a café interstate, we can organise the repair, service, and new parts if needed for them. It saves a big headache for the customer.
“We have two people in our operations team, Anthony, who runs Victoria, and Jackie, who runs interstate. There’s always someone who is going to answer the phone if you have a problem, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Gianluca himself has an engineering background and often finds himself either out on the road getting stuck into repair and servicing jobs or tinkering with coffee machines in the workshop.
With so many of CMT’s staff possessing a similar, high-level technical skillset, Gianluca says there’s often a friendly competitive edge in the workshop when a particularly difficult challenge arrives.
“Seeing a job finished to a good standard is the greatest joy,” he says. “Alongside being able to fix something that someone else can’t.
“I love coming into the warehouse and seeing eight or nine technicians crowding around a machine working out what the problem is and how to solve it.
“Figuring out that challenge is the biggest satisfaction, especially when you’re the one who comes up with the fix.”
For more information, visit coffeemachinetechnologies.com.au
This article appears in the June 2026 edition of BeanScene. Subscribe HERE.
