10 Essential Factors When Choosing a Wholesale Coffee Supplier in Australia
The Australian cafe industry has experienced significant changes over the last 17 years, influencing how businesses select their wholesale coffee suppliers.
Today, Australia's coffee market is competitive, saturated, and mature, with high standards expected from both cafe owners and customers seeking the best wholesale coffee suppliers.
Nowhere is this more evident than in Melbourne and many areas of Sydney, Perth, and Brisbane.
In this highly competitive environment, customers in the wholesale coffee market should ask themselves several key questions before selecting a supplier or reviewing existing partnerships:
- Are you and your suppliers adapting over time ?
- Am I using the best product against my direct competition ?
- Will customers go elsewhere for any reason?
- Do I have clearly identifiable points of difference over my nearby competitors?
Unfortunately, many of the traditional ways of operating hospitality outlets are no longer effective, and the days of people traveling for a great cup of coffee are well and truly over.
Good coffee is expected everywhere, even in fast-food outlets.
Speed, consistency, and convenience are important factors that weigh equally with quality, taste, and value.
There is no point in having the sweetest, most flavored coffee if the customer experience is poor.
Standing out from the crowd in today's market requires clear differentiation from the vast array of coffee outlets nearby.
Some outlets are fortunate enough to be located in busy areas with a lot of constant foot traffic (although they pay for that privilege in higher rents).
It's no secret that the simple art of a great coffee beverage will be the shining star in any cafe operation.
Widely acknowledged as a vital cash flow element that importantly makes up for risks or losses on food operations.
Coffee beverages, like alcohol, when done well, can generate high gross margins.
If you look down many of Melbourne's strip shopping streets, you'll find dozens of cafes, most of which have an attractive appearance.
Unfortunately, only 20% of those cafes are executing their coffee properly, and that 20% are regularly busy with beverage orders. The remaining 80% have coffee sales as a consequence of convenience or paired with food.
Don't believe everything you see or read about coffee.
In 2025, with 2,800 brands of coffee being sold in Australia, everyone wants a plug, especially the free ones.
Any sort of boost from a social media post, a food blogger, or a mention in the press can significantly raise the profile and interest levels.
It's also naive to believe such a list of a Top 20 exists - who could possibly compile such a list objectively, scientifically, as performance would need to be measured over time, not a one-trick pony, god-shot espresso. The list would be changing weekly.
You may be surprised to learn that the coffee companies supplying cafes are not the only companies that can source, roast, and showcase exceptional coffee beans. In fact, cafe wholesale supply is a game of price/margin, full of compromise and trade-offs.
Many coffee brands decide to trade outside of the cafe wholesale supply segment.
However, that does not mean these coffee brands are incapable of making the grade. In most cases, those coffee brands will exceed quality grades by a considerable level.
Set aside proposed incentives to conduct thorough coffee quality evaluations.
Remember, a sales pitch begins the moment a discussion about changing suppliers starts.
Ironically, you may not even realize that this conversation has started!
Coffee company reps are hungry for new business (their incentives for taking new accounts from a competitor are outrageous).
Most cafes in prime locations will have at least three coffee company representatives on their premises every week. Yep, it's irritating, annoying, and a waste of time.
Mostly, coffee representatives lead with a conversation along the lines of "you can do a lot better with a different coffee."Or they sit quietly in your cafe drinking a coffee and then pass a feedback comment when walking out that the coffee was not so good.
This trick exploits the owner's paranoia, causing them to miss out on something or underperform against competitors.
The most common trap cafe owners fall into when they start researching and reviewing potential suppliers is being seduced by shiny new equipment, or generous upfront financial benefits and incentives to switch brands.
Short-term thinking with "trinkets" has nothing to do with coffee quality.
Incentives can distract or disrupt evaluation processes, diverting attention from product quality and developing strong emotional attachments.
Trading off brands based on incentives as the decision factor is not a smart move.
Ultimately, you are buying roasted coffee, and that's what your customers are consuming, not financial incentives.
Smart cafe owners know that signage and bling equipment do not translate into a better cup of coffee. Although bling equipment remains almost 90% effective in seducing cafe owners to switch brands.
Generally, incentives are offered with strings attached. In most cases, this is in the form of a signed contract for a term.
Coffee contracts are legally binding and may include penalties for breach.
Over the last 20 years, we have seen many cafe owners attempting to exit signed contracts, often resulting in legal disputes that cost thousands of dollars.
We don't use contracts, and we don't sue our clients.
Generally, the more attractive incentives offered will invariably mean you can expect a lower level of quality for roasted coffee beans. It's how those brands roll - taking $$ from ingredients to spend on marketing.
Even more reason to properly evaluate the quality of the roasted product before signing anything. In fact, you don't need to sign any contracts with coffee brands - try that on the sales rep.
Always remember, those incentives and shiny equipment won't help you win coffee sales if the ingredients are of poor quality.
Customers in this situation may resort to adding value from another area of their operation, such as discounting coffee beverages. All of a sudden, those upfront incentives have long-term damage to your operations.
We have seen many cafes come and go in the space of less than four months. These cafes were bustling, busy 60kg a week, only to fall off a cliff to 10kg a week when changing to another supplier. That's really painful to witness.
Another important point to keep in mind is that coffee brands are not banks or lenders, nor are any businesses. So they don't offer loans or free financing to bankroll cafe operations.
Big Company or Small ?
We all know from our personal life experiences that most large companies can be difficult and frustrating to deal with ( think Banks, Telecommunications, Utilities, Government agencies, etc.).
It's due to the relative position you occupy in their list of customers - just 1 of many hundreds or thousands.
In those conditions, you can only expect to receive basic (or barely adequate) levels of ongoing service and support from these large companies.
Smaller coffee companies tend to be more focused.
These smaller businesses tend to consider a customer's needs more carefully and may offer greater flexibility.
In some cases, a smaller brand may be able to customize solutions and offer a critical point of difference in a highly competitive market.
Another direct benefit of dealing with smaller brands is the increased likelihood of interacting with the owners. If problems arise, they can be resolved more quickly and in most cases more amicably.
Large coffee companies tend to play the line; they have economies of scale and can offer you more for less by leveraging scale.
Mostly, that's a self-inflated ego they try to use as an advantage over smaller coffee companies.
In roasting coffee, size is not always the key indicator of purchasing power or quality. Most input costs in roasted coffee beans are the raw materials and the related financing of marketing incentives or their DSOs (accounts receivable).
Coffee representatives often boast about the size of their company and how they source higher-quality products at a lower cost, giving you a competitive edge when you partner with them.
All coffee companies pay a similar or relative price for coffee. We all buy from the same brokers.
These brokers have set prices for respective grades (called landed prices) regardless of whether you buy a bag, a pallet, or a container. The differences between a pallet and a container can be as small as $0.25 to $0.50c per kilo.
These claims of big-scale bragging rights are just more smoke and mirrors to "sell a story" to you. It's no surprise that large coffee companies purchase lower-grade coffee. Smaller coffee brands are more interested in building their reputation and are less likely to take risks with cheaper coffees.
How to measure coffee quality
Measuring quality is not easy. It means different things to many people, and even so-called experts can struggle to find common ground.
Whilst some imagine coffee quality as being a brew that is smooth, others believe it should have high flavor.
Then again, others believe that a quality coffee needs to have certain elements of complexity, such as fruit, chocolate, acidity, and caramel, among others.
To perform in the current market, cafes must have a coffee that appeals to a broad majority of coffee drinkers.
Whilst that may sound simple, in fact, it's the most challenging target for a coffee roaster to prepare such a product.
So why is it hard to produce a universally appealing coffee ?.
Simple - coffee roasters are constantly being pulled in different directions by their customers who try to influence feedback loops, whether directly or indirectly.
Some coffees can be rather boring, or they quickly develop a reputation for being overly safe and mundane.
Smooth and creamy is largely unexciting these days, except to the traditional coffee drinker who may be accustomed to instant coffee at home and looks forward to a rich and creamy brew as a special treat at the local café.
Top 10 Factors to Consider When Selecting a Wholesale Coffee Supplier
- Benchmarking - a track record of quality and consistency. Is the coffee the same every week or do you have good and bad batches?
- What infrastructure do they have in place to ensure the preservation of coffee quality? If you are really serious about selecting a quality coffee supplier, don't rely on them visiting your premises for a polite discussion. Instead, go and visit their coffee roastery and warehouse. Serious coffee companies have extensive cooling in the areas where raw and roasted coffees are stored.
- Don't be fooled by sharp representatives or salespeople who make promises about unlimited training, shiny new equipment, investments in signage, cups, uniforms, marketing, and HR assistance, etc. All these trinkets are clever tactics to get your signature on a contract and lock you in. Once under contract, they may gradually substitute lower-grade coffees over time. Here's the first of your big problems: you are fighting against your competition with your hands tied behind your back and locked into a fixed contract.
- Nothing comes for free - you will pay for it, it's just that you can't see it as a direct cost line item because it's built into the price of the coffee per kilo rate, e.g., they use much cheaper, inferior grade coffees to maintain their margins in order to fund incentives. Coffee companies are not banks or cash-rich!
- Think twice before erecting coffee company logos and signs in your cafe - this may immediately deter a number of prospective customers. Someone may have had a bad experience with coffee from the same company that uses the same logo. Unfortunately, many cafe customers mistakenly think it's the coffee bean brand, rather than the barista. Your Cafe is your business, your money, your hard-earned reputation, and your built-up goodwill. Be proud of your own cafe brand because when it comes time to finally sell your business, coffee company signs add no value. Smart cafe operators train their customers to think about their brand, not the coffee company's brand.
- Support of espresso machines and grinders is not a core or essential service to coffee roasters in Australia, despite all the marketing. Remember, coffee companies roast coffee beans first and foremost - they don't sell coffee-making equipment or make profits from this segment. Reality is that the equipment side is an annoying and risky means to an end for many coffee companies. Supplying equipment is a cost item, not a profit generator for coffee brands. Essentially, equipment is just a means to enable the flow of beans from their warehouse into your cafe.
- Using a strategy that hopes a brand of coffee will attract customers is really outdated and risky thinking. In fact, it's stupid. Even in 2023, we regularly encounter cafe owners who believe that if they use a high-profile brand, such as Brand X, then the coffee-drinking public will beat a path to their door - simply not the case anymore. Choose the company that tastes the best, as judged by both your own palate and the opinions of your most trusted customers.
- Don't commit to fixed weekly volumes. Everyone knows that cafes have low and high trading periods, so you should have the flexibility to order less or more as it suits your business volumes. New outlets opening near your premises will have an instant impact on your daily volumes. Fixed volumes are the way coffee brands fund the incentives they offer you. Watch carefully when you reduce ordering quantities - attitudes can change, and they may panic or remove incentives.
- Ensure your supplier is clear and honest with roast dates and freshness. This is perhaps one of the most important contributors to quality and consistency. Don't take coffee that is more than 12 days old and expect to make stunning coffee over the coming week. Demand that your supplier give you coffee that is just 3 - 7 days old. Of course, some coffees develop over a slightly longer period than others, but for quality specialty-grade coffees, the peak window is 5-18 days from roasting.
- Flexibility is fundamental - if you don't like a coffee, or your customers are complaining, then a great supplier who truly values your business will investigate and act accordingly. This is what real quality systems are about, not promises that the coffee is fine or blaming your baristas or blaming the equipment for not working properly. Sometimes, coffees can change because new lots from new seasons arrive and they taste different, which is directly caused by the growing conditions - a great supplier will evaluate and offer an alternative if the coffee is not working or performing to expectations.