When Trevor Simmons, the co-founder of specialty coffee roaster Industry Beans, acquired DC Coffee in 2023, one of his first major decisions was to pull it from Coles. DC had spent years securing supermarket distribution, so surrendering that coveted shelf space was an unusual opening gambit. “In Coles it was ranged but not supported with brand strategy, product hierarchy, external marketing or dynamic promotions and over time it lost ranging on a number of SKUs that weren’t achieving
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When Trevor Simmons, the co-founder of specialty coffee roaster Industry Beans, acquired DC Coffee in 2023, one of his first major decisions was to pull it from Coles. DC had spent years securing supermarket distribution, so surrendering that coveted shelf space was an unusual opening gambit. “In Coles it was ranged but not supported with brand strategy, product hierarchy, external marketing or dynamic promotions and over time it lost ranging on a number of SKUs that weren’t achieving great enough sell-through,” Simmons told Inside FMCG. DC, he explained, needed a clearer identity and more activity behind it if it was going to grow.Two years later, DC was back in national grocery distribution, this time through Woolworths, with a smaller range, larger formats and a clearer target of an audience willing to make good coffee at home. Canstar research released in August, based on a survey of more than 2100 Australians, found 29 per cent had stopped buying café coffee and were making it at home instead, while 19 per cent had bought a coffee machine to reduce their reliance on takeaway cups. What specialty coffee means to consumers“Specialty coffee” has developed its own lexicon of components to make a perfect brew. The global Specialty Coffee Association defines it through the characteristics that give a coffee additional value – like flavour and aroma as well as origin, producer and processing method. For enthusiasts, that specificity, including recommended brewing ratios, is part of the pleasure. Simmons knows specialty coffee’s catechism from the inside. He founded Industry Beans with his brother Steve in Melbourne in 2010, building a coffee bean business that focused on brewing specialty coffee before moving into cafés across Australia’s major cities. With DC, though, he is pursuing a far different but practical proposition: making specialty coffee feel more accessible, affordable and less intimidating. DC traces its lineage to Caffè Ducale, developed by the Valmorbida family. As third-wave coffee gathered pace in the early 2000s, the business evolved into DC Coffee. “It was managed by a really engaged, passionate coffee guy,” Simmons said. That guy was Rob Stewart, whose links to skateboarding, street art and creative subcultures helped establish its artist-led packaging. Simmons first came across the brand from the production side with Industry Beans as its contract roaster. In 2020, DC entered Coles nationally through the Valmorbidas’ Conga Foods business. Simmons said it became the first specialty coffee brand to achieve national supermarket ranging in Australia. By 2023, Stewart had left, and David Valmorbida approached Simmons about an acquisition. By the time Industry Beans acquired DC, Simmons says its Coles ranging had fallen to less than half its original footprint. In Woolworths, the range is concentrated around popular blends, The Darkness and The Duchess, before expanding with The Swell and instant coffee. ‘Post-specialty’The average takeaway coffee now costs $5.90, before the plant-milk surcharge faced by the nearly three in ten café customers ordering almond, oat or soy. Home brewing has become a serious battleground for quality, habit and household economics. That helps explain why Simmons is reluctant to make supermarket coffee feel like a lesser product. Its new national campaign, Fuel Your Creativity, pushes the same philosophy into advertising. Created with advertising agency Hellions, it uses short films and vignettes around the idea of “switching on” after a sip. Simmons describes DC as being built around “individual expression and not taking life too seriously”, with coffee cast as fuel for work, art, sport and whatever else occupies the day. Simmons calls the approach “post-specialty”. “Post-Specialty means evolving past the seriousness of specialty coffee,” he explained. “And keeps the good bits – the grade of specialty coffee, roasting techniques and freshness”. Australia’s home-coffee drinker has become more savvy just as household budgets are making the cafe run easier to scrutinise. Simmons has responded by making the format larger, the price keener and the brand louder.
