It’s taken 18 months of blood, sweat, tears and some big life decisions, but Extraction Artisan Coffee is finally ready to change the game in The City of Logan for coffee lovers.
The venture has been a labour of love for Alex Milosevic and Heather Scott, who – with their business partners Brett and Cath Coates realised a hard-fought dream when they opened the doors of their roastery and cafe at Slacks Creek in May.
The four long-time friends had a vision to create the sort of coffee experience rarely found outside inner-city precincts, so it was with great optimism that Alex and Heather used their life savings to buy an industrial warehouse in 2013.
Fast forward12 months and the Extraction team was pulling its hair out after a series of near misses with banks promising loan support to start-up businesses. With the venture needing funding, Alex and Heather made the tough decision to actually put their house on the market.
And in the meantime… the foursome pooled their funds to buy a 10 kg Proaster roaster and a mini test roaster, but still needed an immediate injection of cash to be able to start roasting and sharing their product with their growing base of followers. The answer: crowd funding.
A lightning four-week crowd-funding campaign through Pozible saw them raise $25,000 to purchase quality green beans and a Nuova Simonelli Gravimetric Black Eagle coffee machine, which now sits proudly installed on the front counter built from hand by Alex.
Alex said the team was overwhelmed by the crowd-funding response”.
“We had amazing support, not just from our friends and family but from complete strangers. It was so humbling to see other people – especially coffee lovers in the Logan community – support our dream,” Alex said.
Alex and Heather’s house finally sold, providing much needed funds to install the commercial kitchen and enable the warehouse to morph into the atmospheric Extraction Artisan Coffee premises.
Extraction have assembled a great team, including Danilo Andrade as café manager and head of coffee research and development. Earlier this year, Danilo took first place in the Queensland Brewers Championship and is considered one of Brisbane’s best baristas.
Brett, who has built a career delivering exceptional customer service for companies including Virgin Australia, said the team had received great support from Logan City Council and was committed to making a positive contribution to the local economy.
“We’re passionate about giving young Logan residents an opportunity to become top class baristas which, as a career, can take you all around the world,” Brett said.
“Logan residents deserve to experience what has become the norm for people living in Brisbane, and we’re very excited to be able to deliver that”.
And so the dream has come to fruition for Alex, Heather, Brett and Cath. Congratulations to the team for creating a coffee roastery/café focused on the highest quality beans and product and for providing a full coffee experience and a hub where people can gather, work and relax.
Extraction Artisan Coffee
7/3375 Pacific Highway, Slacks Creek
www.extractionartisancoffee.com.au
Photographs by: Annette Dutton Photography www.annetteduttonphotography.com
