TECHNOLOGY PROFILE
Three Pence Roasters has installed a 60-kilogram Imf industrial drum roaster.
Worth every penny Three Pence Coffee Roasters talks to BeanScene about taking the leap to Imf roasting equipment and the value in staying connected to its customers.
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here’s an obvious sign when it’s time to take the next step in growing a business. It could be high volume of sales or the need to employ more staff. For Anthony Preston of Three Pence Roasters, however, it was when his wife took one look at the family garage filled with palates of green beans and said, “enough is enough”. Anthony started his journey in the coffee industry around 15 years ago with school friend and now business partner Mark Gentle. They opened their first café called Miami Ice, “back in the day when Italian imported coffee was King”, and years before the specialty coffee industry as we know it took off. At the height of their café success, the boys owned and operated eight cafés at any one time with 110 staff. “Those early days working in cafés is where our love for the industry comes from. We learned a lot from that
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experience,” Anthony says. In 2005, the boys saw a shift in roasting standards and a higher consideration in sourcing, traceability, sustainability, and flavour experimentation. “There was a clear difference in the quality of commodity coffee we were serving and the fresh, specialty roasted coffee appearing on the market. It was a movement we wanted to be part of,” Anthony says. As such, in 2015, Anthony and Mark invested in a 10-kilogram Roastmax roaster from company Owner Will Notaras after meeting at an industry tradeshow. The new investment – a standard drum roaster with gas modulation – made its home in Anthony’s Cronulla garage in New South Wales. It didn’t take long before Anthony was supplying each of his cafés with his own roasted coffee, and outside interest followed. After one year in the garage and
feeling the pressure of needing more space, Anthony and Mark relocated his 10-kilogram Roastmax roaster to a much larger premises in the suburb of Caringbah. “We were roasting a tonne to 1200 kilograms of coffee a week on our 10-kilogram Roastmax roaster, seven days and two nights a week,” Anthony says. With a growing portfolio of wholesale customers, Anthony and Mark made the decision to upgrade their roaster and started doing their homework on the myriad of models on the market. “I learned how to roast on a Petroncini. I was torn whether to stay old school or go down the modern track. Thankfully, Will is such a knowledgeable guy and explained how advanced the technology in today’s selection of roasters are,” Anthony says. Thanks to expert insight, Anthony and Mark bought a 60-kilogram Imf industrial drum roaster from Italy. Getting the machine into the Three Pence warehouse
