15 September
a decent conversation with Roasting Party.
With strong roots in the Aussie coffee scene, Kirby and the team at Roasting Party have always been clear about their philosophy: making good coffee simple and enjoyable for everyone.
We had the pleasure of chatting with Roasting Party’s founder, Kirby, and head of brand, Roisin, about how the company came to be, and the role community, relationships, and education play at the heart of everything they do.
Hey guys! Would you mind explaining the origin story behind Roasting Party and how did it come to be?
Kirby: I grew up in Australia and started out in the early days of the cafe scene in Sydney and Melbourne. I worked at some pretty good places and got the love for the culture and hospitality aspect. From there I met my future wife - she was at university in Australia at the time - and I followed her back to the UK when she returned home.
My best friend and I talked about starting a coffee business because at the time in the UK, chains dominated, and cafés felt very commercial. That’s changed massively since then - now it really reminds me of those early days in Australia.
We started in a small garage in Winchester with a 12kg roaster. From day one it was about building strong relationships. If people did one store successfully, they usually went on to open more, which was different to Aus and New Zealand. As a brand, we’ve always focused on long-term partnerships. We don’t really have a ‘new business team’ for that reason; we get involved with people early and support them enough to grow.
We’ve had pretty steady growth over the last 12 years, quadrupling our roastery footprint in that time. We started our shops 7-8 years ago, first one being Party at Pavilion in Chelsea and then Party at Moorgate in East London only a year after. Obviously there have been ups and downs in the 12 years, but overall, we’re in a pretty good position.
Speaking of ups and downs, since starting Roasting Party and opening your coffee shops, what are the most important lessons you have learnt?
Kirby: I think staying true to yourself. We like to differentiate ourselves, particularly in the style of how we work and how we deliver the coffee experience. I could have easily changed to the mass specialty market, but I knew what I wanted to do. Reinvestment is part of moving forward as well. Never let your shop get tired because it allows the new shop nearby to become more attractive. Know your staff, train your staff, and be quite personal. Getting down in the ditches with them is always important. And not being obsessed with growth and just allowing it to happen, trusting your product.
Not only do you have custom branded Hot Cups, but also custom branded Coffee Bags. Why did you choose decent for your custom branding and how did you find the process?
Kirby: It was a nice evolution for us. decent have the same forward-thinking approach. Tom, our great Account Manager, has dealt with my ups and downs, the perils of shipping crises and deadlines. He understood what we wanted to achieve and made it easy to move from cups into bags with the same attention to detail. We get the majority of our packaging from decent.
Roisin: Packaging is one of our most powerful owned assets. From early on, we've had a lot of consumer UGC - people sharing photos of our cups with our tagline good vibes, great friends, exceptional coffee. Obviously there was the quality and sustainability aspect with decent, but we just love when someone comes out of our shop and take a photo of the cup in the street.
When it came to our coffee bags, we wanted strong sustainability credentials as well as a striking design. Recycled plastic (saving plastic from going straight to landfill) was the best solution that delivered the artisan look we wanted whilst maintaining the quality of our coffee. The feedback’s been amazing from wholesale customers, consumers, and our team. It marked a real step forward for us.
Alongside your physical stores you also have a strong online presence. How do you think social media and your website play a role in building your community?
Roisin: Social media is our way to capture those moments and to show how we're different, the friendliness of our team and the fact that people and relationships really are at the beating heart of our brand.
Instagram is our showcase - it shows the quality of our coffee and our warm, Aussie hospitality. TikTok is about discoverability and fun, and LinkedIn helps us connect professionally.
Our website is our hub. Over the past three years we’ve invested heavily in content. Coffee at the early stages can often feel quite complicated, sometimes you go into cafes and they're a bit snobby. That's the antithesis of what we want to be about. We want to coffee to be really welcoming, whether you're educated about it or not. That’s why we created what we call it our ‘BrewTube’, the YouTube of coffee. It’s all about answering the questions and challenges that people have as they start to make coffee at home.
And how would you say the education and training you do through your website and with the team contribute to the overall business?
Roisin: The way we roast is a bit different - it’s a philosophy that started in Australia and that Kirby and the team have refined here in the UK with a unique dual roasting programme. We're all about being the best tasting cup in your hand, whether you drink it with milk or black. We found a lot of UK roasters have one approach for both, but if milk is 70% of the drink, you do need to treat the coffee a bit differently to still hit those flavour notes. That is why we've got specific recipes of how to brew at home on the website as well.
The level of rigour that the team puts into the training and the quality of the coffee is a continual process. We’ve already run 3 - 4 staff trainings this year, tasting new coffees and learning. At the roastery we have three tiers of training, and we’ve now trained over 1,000 baristas at our Winchester roastery.
Kirby: Obviously, that's a lot of wholesale training as well. From a wholesaler perspective, we would like to think that when people visit one of our wholesale customers, it feels like it's a Roasting Party venue as well.
If you could have a coffee (or a beer) with anyone, past or present, who would it be?
Kirby: I thought a lot about this one. I mean, being a sport mad being Aussie, I would have loved to have met Shane Warne. He was a real hero when I was a kid. Or Pat Rafters, I’ve met him a couple times but not actually sat down for a coffee or a drink or anything like that. They were both the best of their craft but still didn't really take themselves that seriously.
A tough choices I imagine but... do you have a favourite coffee from your range? Or a favourite drink from your coffee shop?
Kirby: The Captain. It was our first blend, and it has stood the test of time. I always go back to it. But I push for diversity of styles, don't just order the same thing every day. It's about the experience too, whether you're drinking it with someone or taking the time to sit down and drink it properly. It’s not just a caffeine fix, it has to bring some enjoyment.
Anything exciting on the way for Roasting Party or anything else you’d like to share?
Kirby: There are always exciting things in the works. I don't think we're the kind to just sit still.
Roisin: We've been gathering momentum for a while. The past couple of years have been about building solid foundations - we've rebranded, rebuilt our website, refitted our shops. Now we’re heading into a new phase of growth. For us, that will always be selective and in a way that allows us to maintain our ethos, it really is at the beating heart of the business. But we are super excited about what the next because we think it will be a real step forward for us. Watch this space.
A big shoutout to Roasting Party for serving exceptional coffee, building a thriving community, and years of trusting decent with their packaging every step of the way!
