Coffee Supreme’s brand manager Douglas Johns reflects on the company’s story as it turns 30, by picking 10 images that collectively explain how it got here.

1. Where it all began

This is our founder Chris Dillon, who along with Maggie Wells was the owner and driver of Coffee Supreme back in 1993. The pair owned it until 2022, and it was their instincts and approach which helped carve out a very distinctive place in the market for Coffee Supreme, first in New Zealand, then in Australia and Japan. They opened a cafe called Reds, in 1992. When the IRD put their supplier into liquidation, Dillon and Wells made the decision to take over the ailing roaster, and thus Coffee Supreme was born. This picture shows Chris on the tools at the original Woodward Street store – his selling prowess and emphasis on high quality, training and well-serviced machines has been a big part of what differentiated Coffee Supreme in the early years.

2. The origins of the beans

This is a shot of coffee being washed in Ethiopia. At first we bought coffee in the New Zealand market, but found it hard to ensure consistency and quality over time, so switched to a direct sourcing model. This meant a lot more travel, but much closer relationships with the people producing it and a greater knowledge of how our core product is made, while ensuring we got the quality we’d grown a thirst for. We now have some very long-standing friendships – some for over a decade. These partnerships are meaningful, not only for us to source great coffee, but our partners know what we want and we’re good for it too – through the good times and the bad. 

3. Coffee first, safety third

You can see from the price that this was a while ago, but also from the approach to safety. No way we’d be working with a garden hose nowadays, or have electricity running like that. But I do think it shows the energy and invention of the brand, something which has persisted. We always want to figure out a way to do something, and believe that getting people a great cup of coffee is worth making happen, even if it requires a bit of extra effort or ingenuity.

4. The rise of the brand

This is a shot of Al Keating, who was our first person in Auckland and had a stint as CEO, and left a real imprint on the company. He really believed in the power of brand, and got us all sweating the details and emphasising our look and tone of voice in a way which wasn’t typical for coffee companies. Even today, it’s uncommon with food brands – I attended a meeting yesterday with a few companies, and we were the only one with a full-time internal brand department. It allows us to be extremely nimble, and Al had a big role in shaping the company’s culture that still stands today. It’s about creating good experiences, that should be fun, and with a touch of irreverence. It’s just a cup of coffee – but we want to make it a really good cup.

5. Cult merch

Connected to that is doing things which were perhaps a touch uncommon for coffee brands. Like making merch. These socks were originally a bit of a joke, designed for a Christmas present, like a stink pair of socks you might get from a distant uncle, but they were received so well that they’ve become a cult item for baristas. We’ve sold thousands of pairs, and it helped pave the way for non-coffee merchandise and ultimately further brand collaborations.

6. Partnering

One of our most cherished is with Whittaker’s on the coffee chocolate blocks they make. A few years ago we made a list of three brands we really wanted to work with, who we thought would represent a real milestone and proof point if they wanted to work with us too. The first was Air New Zealand, which didn’t quite stack up financially. But the next two were Lewis Rd and Whittaker’s, each of which are iconic and highly regarded brands in their own right, which both worked out and we made some delicious things together. But we’re just as proud of a recent collaboration. It was with Double Double, a young coffee company from Perth, Western Australia. While it’s common to collaborate with competitors in the craft beer industry, it’s very rare in coffee. We didn’t see why not, and we’re comfortable enough in our own skin to have given it a crack.

7. Taking it to the people

In the past few years we’ve made a real conscious effort to be a lot more accessible. Our purpose is “better coffee for all”, which ultimately provides us a lens to which we can make different products. You don’t scrimp on quality, but you think hard about what you’re making and where it goes. This is why we now make instant coffee. We use a similar process to the giants, but we make sure to use the same great coffee as with our other products, meaning the cup just comes out better. 

But the biggest change was probably the decision to go into supermarkets. They’ve not traditionally been associated with great coffee – typically poor quality, over-roasted, and not all that fresh. We tried to reframe that by putting a roast date stamp on every bag, and with the first supermarket we entered – New World in Thorndon – we actually put a stand of our coffee in with the fresh fruit and veggies to try and emphasise the different way we wanted people to think about coffee.

8. Repackaging

This is a poster advertising our new paper bags, on the street in Melbourne. The decision was not one taken lightly – beans don’t last nearly as well in paper as they do in plastic. But we take sustainability very seriously at Supreme, so couldn’t ignore the volume of plastic we were putting into the world. It meant an education piece, telling our customers that the bag is to get them home, and after that they should go into an airtight container. It also meant really doubling down on that “drink fresh coffee” idea I mentioned before. But while it makes our lives harder, we believed that the sacrifice was worth it if it meant a significant reduction in our carbon footprint.

9. Going international

While much of what we do at Coffee Supreme is the product of very deliberate planning, some is much more the product of serendipity. That goes for both the major markets we’ve entered. Melbourne came about when two of our early staffers, Justin and Marsha, fell in love with the city on a trip to watch the Formula One. They pitched the idea, to Chris and Maggie, of them moving over, and taking Coffee Supreme with them, and the rest is history. 

It’s a similar story with our Japan business. Hiroki and Tomoko were fans of the brand, and regulars at Good One, our then cafe in Ponsonby. They suggested we open a location in Tokyo (pictured), and offered to help us do it. We learned a lot along the way – the Japanese like a different style of roast to the average New Zealander – but we all love the fact that some of what we do as a brand only happens because of our people or our fans.

10. After the pandemic

The pandemic was obviously incredibly hard on hospitality, and on us at Coffee Supreme. We were very fortunate in having entered supermarkets just prior, which gave us another channel to reach our audience and sell our coffee. But coming in and out of lockdown took its toll, and as we went into that first summer after the lockdown, we wanted to go and meet our audience where they were. This is a shot of the little caravan we took around the country in the summer of 20-21, parked up on a sunny day in Martinborough. It epitomises the spirit of the company: making a better cup of coffee, wherever you are and however you drink it. 

As told to Duncan Greive