The strategically located stores target busy office workers who desire something quick yet nutritious to satisfy their hunger, with a real focus on healthy, hand-prepared, grab-and-go meals made daily using quality, market-fresh ingredients.

Sam Nash, Nashi’s creator, left a successful career at Epicure Catering 11 years ago to explore the challenge of running his own business. Recognising a gap in the retail takeaway food market for a “healthier food option for very busy people”, Sam spent nine months testing various food and packaging ideas in his home.

One of his original plans was to find a better way to package sandwiches, panini and focaccia for eating on the run. Sam invented a greaseproof bag that made customer service more efficient and saved customers’ clothing by eliminating the need to unwrap layers of paper. Then Sam turned his thoughts to solving the lunch-time catering dilemma of collecting platters from all over the CBD – a time-consuming and costly exercise. Sam solved this problem with another design idea: laminated cardboard sandwich trays that eliminate the issue of tray collection and provide Nashi with a branding opportunity at the same time.

Sam drew the original store design – to scale – on the laneway out the back of his house in chalk. “I ‘played’ in this immaginary ‘chalked’ concept store and put considerable time into checking things like the service flow, product placement and so on, tweaking the design on a daily basis.

Eventually I came up with a workflow that is flexible enough to work whether there’s one or four people on the floor; they are able to do so in the most efficient way possible.” These back-alley drawings created the design footprint used for every store since.

With his untested concept, Sam tendered for – and won – a store in Collins Place (45 Collins Street, Melbourne). This was the foundation store that Sam still refers to as his “baby”, and it started him on the road to owning a very successful chain. A fairly small space at 23 square metres, to this day it is one of the Nashi group’s best performers. Since opening 10 years ago this month, Nashi has gone from strength to strength; the brand is now recognised as much for its great coffee, sourced from Veneziano Coffee Roasters, as for its food, leaving the group well poised for a bright future, with franchise opportunities on the horizon.

Ten years and 10 stores later, Nashi is undergoing a brand refresh to highlight its maxim of “bringing the kitchen into the shop”, commencing with the store at the Jam Factory in South Yarra this year, then filtering through to the older stores as they come due for refurbishment. The revised branding reflects the three things the Nashi brand is becoming famous for: sandwiches, panini and good coffee.

Coffee and Nashi: A Love Story

Much more than just a lunchtime business, Nashi caters for every time of the day. In the mornings it may be a coffee with a vast selection of breakfast items to complement; lunch sees a wide selection of seasonal, freshly made sandwiches and Panini on offer; and there is a range of snacks and meals for any time of the day when hunger kicks in or time allows for a quick bite. Nashi’s strong and loyal customer base has also come to expect great quality coffee, reflective of their high-quality food product.

Sam tells us, “Early on in the Nashi business, I realised that there was a huge opportunity to capture part of the increasing coffee market. Great coffee was the perfect partner to our sandwich business model. However, it needed to match the quality of our sandwich business, which is what we were originally about. I had always said that we are a food business that sells coffee, as opposed to a coffee business that sells food; however, there was no reason why we couldn’t do both at the highest level.

“Our first coffee supplier was a great starting point, but we really wanted to implement a consistent barista training culture within our business. I was first introduced to the Veneziano crew through a mutual friend and competitor in the coffee business. They had their own blend made by Veneziano at significant volumes. There were certain pH level requirements and other requests that seemed way beyond my technical comprehension. They also had strict barista training requirements that were being supported by the Veneziano staff. It was the combination of coffee knowledge, locally roasted beans and business support that impressed me.

“Our [first] Veneziano representative was Australian Barista Champion four years running, supported and eventually replaced by the Australian Latte Art Champion. Not a bad way to start a dedicated barista training culture within Nashi! I knew that they [the reps] would not have been putting their efforts behind the Veneziano business if the coffee did not match their abilities,” he says.

This strategy now sees Nashi customers come to them almost as much for their coffee as for food, as is evident in their daily store revenue, with revenue splits becoming more balanced. As Sam explains, “Since we focused on coffee, it’s become more like 55/45 food to coffee, which is demonstrative of what our partnership with Veneziano has achieved; revenue prior to this was closer to 80/20 food to coffee. It was definitely the right strategic move for us and provides us with a double reason for customer visitation throughout our operating hours.”

Nashi creates all their food in their kitchen located in Collingwood (Victoria), while Veneziano are based around the corner in Abbotsford. This geographical closeness helped when it came time for Nashi to explore a blend of coffee that was unique to them.

“After three years of using the Veneziano Estate blend, even though we were extremely happy with it, we decided that it was time to create our own unique blend; Veneziano were equally up to the challenge to fulfill this request. With the help of Craig Dickson and his roasting team, we initially discussed what we would like to achieve. It needed to be able to cut through the milk, but still be smooth enough as an espresso. It was important to Nashi that we retained the nutty, Toblerone flavours and a medium bodied roast of the original Estate blend; after all, our customers are accustomed to more than a warm cup of coffee-flavoured milk.” And the current Nashi blend is obviously a winner with the specialty coffee industry as well as Nashi customers, as the winner of this year’s Golden Bean Best Coffee Chain/Franchise attests to.

For more information   W. www.nashi.com.au

Photos by Dale Parker (manager First Pour Melbourne).