Tell us about First Press Coffee.
First Press Coffee launched in 2013 with the idea to rewrite the narrative of the daily coffee routine. Our mission is to energise any occasion and bring more moments of inspiration and joy to coffee drinkers. Great coffee is a portal to energy and connection, and we want to create more of these positive experiences by simplifying the coffee ritual and making great coffee accessible to all.
We are a specialty coffee driven company. Our beans are carefully selected by farm to ensure the quality and flavour of the bean, and the wellbeing of the grower and their community.
All of our products are made using our innovative cold drip coffee process from machines that were custom built by my Co-Founder Hamish. These machines drip water over ground coffee for a gentle 10-hour extraction. This delivers a smooth and rich flavoured coffee without the acidity and bitterness of a heat extracted coffee. The additional ingredients to our beverages are sourced locally where possible and all products are refined sugar free.
What inspired you to start First Press Coffee?
I went backpacking for a period of 18 months in my mid-twenties and was looking for an idea and to bring back to Australia. At the time, Hamish was working for a large tech company in Melbourne and not completely satisfied in his job. I gathered an interest in coffee after visiting some of the farms in a town called Salento in Colombia. It wasn’t until I saw bottled cold brew coffee products in a Wholefoods store in the US that I saw a way for this interest to manifest into a product.
We started drinking cold drip and cold brew coffee in cafes in Australia to explore this idea. At the time, we could see the third wave coffee movement becoming very popular in Melbourne cafes. Coffee lovers were really interested in the providence of coffee and the different experience you can have with the different ways coffee is extracted. We saw a large gap between the changing trends of cafe coffee and the Iced Coffee products in the supermarkets. At the time, most the of the products in the supermarket fridge were large, contained high levels of sugar and using Robusta coffee beans.
After many whiteboard sessions and dreaming (with the help of red wine), we developed our first prototype which we took to farmers markets. It was here that we were able to collate valuable feedback on taste, design and our sales channels. It was a slow burn at the start and there were many moments where we questioned the ability to scale the idea. Luckily, we continually received the right amount of positive feedback to keep going.
Describe a typical work day for you.
It’s an adventure! I try and keep to a short list of key tasks. I look at this list and then check emails to see if there are any jobs I can move forward without taking too much time. The day doesn’t always go to plan, we have a small team and there are constant challenges that can surface which require urgent attention. My job is a mix of strategy, managing customer relationships with major supermarkets, distributors, export partners and managing new product development. Depending on season or planned meetings, my time in the day can focus on any of these categories. I have to travel with my role so this can also dictate the weeks plan.
Hamish is steering the ship in the warehouse, so his role covers the operations side of the business and finance. When he is not working on the finance side, he is ensuring the machines and the team are working well. This involved resolving any malfunctions and constantly upgrading them to improve the automation.
Tell us about your career and background.
I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Marketing but my professional career after graduating was managing a busy organic food store in Prahran. At the time, it was a job I was doing for the purpose of saving money to travel. I wasn’t ready to jump into the rat race. Funnily enough, my experience here helped us immensely in understanding consumers, especially in the early adopter stage which we needed to reach in our early years.
Hamish has a Bachelor of Science and Human Biology but found himself working in Retail Management for Apple before First Press. Hamish was able to engineer unique machinery to make cold drip coffee on scale, which is not an easy process. From his experience at Apple, he has also brought technical and leadership skills which have helped us stay efficient and ready to handle the spot fires.
What advice do you have for those wanting to start a business?
Expect resistance:
If it was easy, everyone would do it. Our number 1 selling product (the 10-shot Big Boy) was the very product we were being laughed out of the room when we originally tried to sell it into supermarkets. Buyers did not comprehend the idea of selling a beverage in the iced coffee section higher than $10. Ultimately, it was our consumers who proved them wrong (and A LOT of follow-ups when you had previously been told no.) We can’t tell you the number of times we were told that these products would not sell.
Trust your gut:
We have had multiple moments which we had doubts about our own personal ability to grow First Press (and at times keep it alive). When we look back to those moments there was always a voice and a trust in our heart that we had to keep going. Ultimately, the gold was on the other side of the fear.
Just know the single next step.
You can easily get lost in the future. There are an endless array of books telling you to map out every detail of your future plan. One of our greatest learnings for us was to not get lost in the infinite pathways and keep things simple. Sometimes it was simple as just knocking on the door of 10 stores, which would open up the next step.
Admit you don’t know what you’re doing.
We absolutely had no idea what we were doing when we started the business, and we still have many moments where we don’t pretend we know what we’re doing. Our one intention when we started First Press was to learn how to build a business. The beauty (and frustration) of this is that the learning is never over, and you must meet every day with a humble awareness you’re still in school.
Lean on your support.
From family, friends, staff, advisors, customers and investors, we simply could not have done this alone. There have been countless times when we have been in a hard moment, and the phone has rung with someone sending some support. The friendships and connections we have gained from starting First Press is easily the most important gift we have been given from our time at First Press. To this point, we have already won (but the journey is far from over).
Embrace the difference.
Hamish and I have different skills and we look at things in different ways. This has caused moments of heat when we have been holding onto our ideas with a firm stance. It has actually been really helpful to constantly have someone by our side who can challenge our beliefs, especially when there is blind spot we are not seeing. We have always upheld a mutual agreement that when we disagree on something, we talk it out after and help each other feel heard. This has led us to have many insights which we would not have seen if we were not challenged.
What’s next for you, and First Press Coffee?
In our caffeinated world, there never seems to be a dull moment. We have just moved into our new warehouse in Footscray which has been a significant upgrade to our operations. This is enabling us to scale our production and improve our systems. We have just launched 2 new products in Woolworths nationwide, so we are working hard on ensuring they are received well in the market. We are about to launch our brand in Indonesia and Philippines, and we are also working on an exciting new product.
Our goal is to continue to have fun and help people have an inspiring moment with their coffee every day. The fact that we have more people every day in Australia and around the world buying our products brings us a continual flow of gratitude. For us, our goal is to stay true to great coffee, and continue to learn every day.
For more please visit: firstpresscoffee.com
