As part of the Foodco offering, Master Roaster, Fred Vains, recognises the changes in the coffee industry and the growing consumer awareness and expectations for high quality coffee. With many years of industry experience, Fred heads up a team of roasters based in Melbourne that continue to develop and refine each blend.

In 2011, the Foodco roasting team entered both Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue coffee blends into Australia’s largest coffee roasting competition, the CSR Golden Bean. The Golden Bean competition provides an award to acknowledge the best of the best in coffee roasting businesses Australia wide.

Muffin Break – Espresso Chain – Silver
Muffin Break – Milk Chain – Bronze
Jamaica Blue – Milk Chain – Gold
Jamaica Blue – Espresso Chain – Bronze

Proud of their achievements, the marketing team are now doing a great job to ensure their customers are aware of their achievements and the excellent coffees they serve.
Café Culture caught up with Drew Eide, National Marketing Manager for the Foodco Group, to find out how they have used their win to ensure their consumers know about their great coffee.

Muffin Break, Jamaica Blue, Dreamy Donuts. Why did Foodco choose these brands?  Were they started at the same time? Did they originate in Australia, or were the concepts brought from another country?
Foodco was born with the Australian launch of Muffin Break in Queensland in 1989. The Muffin Break concept originated in Canada and was acquired by Foodco and refined for contemporary conditions. The brand now occupies a unique niche in the retail food industry and continues to grow both domestically and across the globe. Today, Muffin Break trades through more than 250 cafés across Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom and will soon launch in India.

Jamaica Blue is another success story that Foodco is very proud to have launched in Australia in 1992 at Miranda Fair in NSW. This year, Jamaica Blue celebrates its 20 year anniversary and recently undertook a significant brand evolution project. Today, Jamaica Blue trades in Australia, New Zealand, China, the United Arab Emirates and will soon commence operations in Singapore.

Dreamy Donuts is also performing well. The first store opened in 2005 and competes in the premium treat category and also has an excellent blend of coffee.

What is the key to Foodco’s success? Have you implemented the same franchise systems across all three brands?
A key element of our success is that our shareholders and the majority of our senior management have been with Foodco since the very early days. This has provided a stable foundation for the long-term growth of our brands.  The other critical factor is that we focus on accentuating our key points of difference with each brand every day.

Furthermore, Foodco prides itself on a commitment to quality; that is, in terms of our products, training, service, presentation standards, marketing and internal operations. All three of our brand systems share strong synergies, which provides for excellent economies of scale. As for our coffee … well, that speaks for itself!

What products are made in house, and what is outsourced and why? What are the advantages?
The vast majority of our products are made fresh daily and in-store. This is a unique point of difference for the Foodco brands, and we pride ourselves on our baked today in-house promise.

How has Foodco faired in combating the GFC?
Foodco has performed extremely well in spite of the GFC. We attribute this to our training practices and to the up-skilling of our teams in both food and coffee. Additionally, we’re very focused on operational standards, innovative marketing and customer loyalty strategies, as well as ongoing product innovation.

Both Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue won medals at last year’s Golden Bean Roaster Competition. How have you capitalised on this for both brands?
We are extremely proud of our medals, and we’re enjoying showing them off! In addition to in-store signage, PR and packaging seals, we’ve launched a limited edition cup to mark Jamaica Blue’s Gold Medal win. We’re also communicating these awards through our websites, social media channels and of course, our loyalty club member base. We’ve distributed a thank you e-DM with a special coffee offer to our Loyalty Club members and of course, our Managing Director formally thanked our franchisees for their significant contribution. We’ve always known that the Foodco coffee blends are outstanding, and now we have the medals from a blind taste-test to prove it!

The Golden Bean branding of Jamaica Blue looks fantastic. It seems that you have focused more on this brand rather than Muffin Break. Is this due to the good timing of a brand reinvigoration for Jamaica Blue?
Foodco doesn’t focus on any one brand more than another. However, there couldn’t have been a better time to announce Jamaica Blue as a Gold Medal winner in the CSR Golden Bean Awards! Taking the top gong for our Signature Blend in such a competitive category is an extraordinary achievement that we are very proud to have realised. We’re rejoicing in the opportunity to build our coffee credibility through the communication of these awards and of course, it’s great to be attracting new customers to our brands by doing so.

Jamaica Blue is in the midst of a significant brand revitalisation and this year happens to be our 20th anniversary; so yes, the timing was perfect. We will continue to focus on the quality of our Signature Blend and also on the intensive training programs for our baristas in order to serve the perfect cup every time.

By the same token, we’re relishing Muffin Break’s Golden Bean success through the promotion of this award through similar channels, and this has helped to generate trial of the fabulous Muffin Break blend as well.

Has the win also invigorated your franchisees and their employees? How have you promoted the win in house and ensured that Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue baristas are on board and proud of the product?
Yes; our franchisees and their teams are very excited about these awards and have really rallied behind them. The Golden Bean POS is proudly displayed in every store. We have communicated these awards to our franchise network through our intranet and internal newsletters, which has really motivated our franchisees, consultants, coffee trainers and in-store baristas to focus on quality and perfection every day. It’s a great feeling for all those in the field to know that our blends have been recognised nationally amongst our core competitors, and it has motivated the entire team to deliver perfection in every cup.

The Foodco brands are expanding internationally. How are these markets different to Australia?
Every international market is unique, so we undertake significant research to ensure that we are delivering our concepts appropriately. Muffin Break now operates in three countries (soon to be four) and Jamaica Blue currently has a presence in four countries (soon to be five). While there are some variations to our fresh-food menus, one thing that doesn’t change no matter the market is our coffee blends and our focus on training and consistency.

What’s next for the Foodco team? Any new and exciting developments in the pipeline?
There are always new developments in the pipeline at Foodco … Muffin Break is continually evolving, and we will have some exciting announcements in the near future. Similarly, Jamaica Blue keeps going from strength to strength; so without giving away too much at this time, watch this space …