Liz & Mick Beggs
Kyzan Group

I had the pleasure of meeting Liz and Mick Beggs back in 2007, when they were running a sports fashion brand out of France and Liz had started a café called Peak in a retail space in Hunter Street, Newcastle. Liz was totally new to the café world, but I could see a real passion hidden beneath, so it was an honour to offer them advice at the time. Today it is a real pleasure to see their success and how they can change quickly to adapt to industry needs.

Here is a time line of their business success:
2008 – While Liz was busy immersing herself in the coffee industry, Mick was in Hong Kong heading up Europe’s largest surf brand, “Oxbow”. As the General Manager for Asia Pacific, he was involved in all areas of the international business.

2009 – Liz, with her interest for the café and struggling to get the right product fit for her café business, created Kyzan Group (Café and Coffee Supplies). With only two customers in their area, which were both supplied by Kyzan and Peak Coffee Roastery from Port Macquarie, Liz spent endless days visiting other cafés, presenting their suite of products and explaining the benefits of coming on board with Kyzan Group.

2010 – Not long into the business, Liz took on a second coffee brand to suit the larger café market, “Mocopan”. Liz continued to develop the café business, while Mick returned home to take on a role in the wholesale side of the diving industry. This senior role allowed Mick to develop a solid knowledge of a domestic business.

2013 Liz and Mick decided that it was time to kick it into gear, realising their passion was in the café industry. Working together, they managed to turn eight customers into twenty-five in the local area. Leaning on Mick’s knowledge of wholesale and retail business sales both here and abroad, they managed to increase their customers’ sales dramatically. A decision was made to limit the number of wholesale customers for Kyzan Group and work on exclusive branding for their current customer base.

2015 – Kyzan Group opened its first café to help their wholesale customers. They both knew opening another café would help them gain more knowledge of the retail market and trial new ideas and systems to help their wholesale customers with their businesses.

Liz and Mick didn’t want to recommend a new idea or system without trialling it first. If successful, they would take that idea to their wholesale customer base. Since the opening of their first café, they have managed to build and open up more and now employ eight amazing people to help them continue their journey.

Liz has now taken over the retail arm of the business, while Mick focuses on the wholesale side.

In 2016/17 the plan for Kyzan Group is to continue to focus on expanding its wholesale and retail business, with the coffee lover in mind.