SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH | 4 minute read
Are there any people within your network with similar ambitions and complementary skills? Partner relationship management is one of the keys to success. Read on to find out how building strong business relationships can help you grow your business.
In 2000, Michael Allpress took the first bold step to becoming an international brand by expanding into Australia with the help of Michael’s lifelong friend and well-known Sydney restaurateur, Tony Papas. Papas was able to provide insight based on his experiences as a restaurateur and with his help, Allpress was able to successfully expand across the Tasman in Sydney and Melbourne.
How well do you know your suppliers?
Instead of relying on a distributor to source their coffee beans, Allpress invests the time to visit small farms, estates, and co-ops that meet their high standards of sustainable management and agriculture practice.
This involves visiting farmers, millers, and exporters in different coffee growing regions. These trips were not your typical suit, tie, and clipboard supplier distribution trips. Allpress team members talk to the pickers and processors and taste the annual crops for body, aroma, and flavor, as well as took the time to create a friendly familiarity over a meal or, fittingly, a cup of coffee.
By forming direct relationships with the growers, Allpress invests in the coffee bean supply community. Allpress would then connect their suppliers to an active market of people who will enjoy their beans after roasted, all under the Allpress banner.
Allpress was not only known for creating a great product, but he was also known for his willingness to provide lessons to local coffee shops optimal brewing techniques and ensure people were ultimately getting the best experience out of his coffee. This desire to work with local coffee shops can also be seen as an investment in not only the local community, but also an investment in the ultimate success for the espresso and Allpress Coffee lover community worldwide.
I was about 29, 30, travelling through Seattle and saw this mobile espresso cart that a Boeing engineer built. I thought, That’s a good idea. I moved back to New Zealand, got a government grant, borrowed money off my dad and was in business. I was always obsessed with flavour and started researching not only coffee, but coffee-roasting equipment too. I bought a roaster out of Sydney, dragged it home and rebuilt it. That’s where I learned my craft. It wasn’t long before I started approaching a few restaurants and had created a little wholesale distributing business." - Michael Allpress
Interested to learn more about how focusing on business relationships helped Allpress Coffee grow their business? Read the case study here.
