Mike Allpress has come a long way from serving espresso coffee in paper cups from a barrow at the Victoria Park market in Auckland. Sally Rae reports.
Mike Allpress gave up a career as a chef to establish one of New Zealand's first specialist espresso companies, Allpress Espresso, 25 years ago.
He was in Dunedin this week for the official opening of the company's Dunedin roastery in Emily Siedeberg Pl, near the University of Otago.
He has strong links with the South, as his father was originally from Dunedin, while his mother was from Invercargill.
Nova Cafe had also been one of the company's longest-standing customers and Allpress Espresso had some "great business" in the city.
The company was shipping about 600kg of coffee beans each week from Auckland to the South Island and those beans would be distributed from Dunedin. The establishment of the roastery and cafe created about 10 jobs.
Expanding into Dunedin made sense for various reasons. Allpress Espresso was a medium-sized company which was continuing to grow, not only in New Zealand but also offshore, including recent expansion into London, Mr Allpress said.
Coming to Dunedin meant being closer to customers and it also provided a "backstop" if there was ever a problem with the roaster in Auckland, as beans could then be roasted in Dunedin to supply customers in the North Island. The company has about 300 customers throughout the country.
The company had adopted new technology involving hot-air roasting, rather than the traditional drum roaster, which was believed to give superior flavour, he said.
It had taken five years to develop the roaster - the one installed in Dunedin was the first "from scratch" - and the company was now looking at developing a product to take to the global market.
As a child growing up, Mr Allpress said there was always roast and ground coffee at home, while friends were drinking tea and instant coffee.
After pursuing a career as a chef, one of the first restaurants he worked in had a selection of coffees.
He then had a cafe in Karangahape Rd, which served a lot of espresso, then spent time in Seattle when the specialty coffee market in the United States was starting to blossom. He knew Starbucks when it had two stores.
When he returned to New Zealand and established the espresso cart business, there was "a bit of roast and ground around".
He started off "being a guy on a barrow in a market" but even while he was serving coffee, he was making plans.
His barrow was his office and, in the days before cellphones, he had a landline in the drawer.
Now, modern technology meant people travelling anywhere in New Zealand could use their iPhone to find out where the closest Allpress outlet was and then use Google Maps to find their way there.
Mr Allpress has always been reasonably ambitious about wanting to develop a global brand and that was the route the company was taking.
The business has grown to employ about 160 staff worldwide. With 25 years in the business , "we've learned our craft". "Time in the market is valuable," Mr Allpress said.
The company's product was "world class", from the raw materials and selection process through to the roasting methodology, distribution and support for customers.
It was all about flavour, reputation, brand equity and technical support. Consistency was a hugely important factor.
As part of the business, customers were trained to create "great"espresso. The company could go to the trouble of selecting and roasting the beans "perfectly" before shipping it to customers, who could then "screw it up".
The company was on "a bit of a crusade" to get everybody making "perfect espresso", Mr Allpress said.
The company had to work hard to get good-quality beans. Like any agricultural product, it changed.
He is also the distributor for Australia and New Zealand for La Marzocco coffee machines, which are manufactured in Florence.
