Hasbean, one of the United Kingdom’s first specialty roasters, will officially become Ozone Coffee on 26 March 2024. The New Zealand-founded company acquired the Staffordshire roaster in July 2018, but the two brands have since functioned under separate identities.
From the end of March, the Stafford roastery will produce specialty beans under the Ozone Coffee name. In a blog post on the Hasbean website, the team said: “Let us assure you that while our name is changing, our commitment to providing you with the same outstanding experience remains the same. Behind the scenes at the roastery in Stafford absolutely nothing is changing”.
In 2022, Hasbean updated its packaging to reflect the same design as Ozone Coffee and, in 2023, labelled its products as Hasbean by Ozone Coffee.
When the deal was struck in 2018, Hasbean founder Steve Leighton, who established the business in 2002, became a shareholder of the Ozone combined group along with Hasbean colleagues Dale Harris and Chris Glover-Price.
Founded over two decades ago, Hasbean was one of the first roasters in the UK to offer speciality-grade beans. It paved the way for other independent roasters, which followed its preference for a lighter roast and Australasian-style serve.
Ozone Coffee was another early adopter of the specialty movement, launched in Fitzroy, New Zealand, in 1998. It has two cafes in New Zealand, one in Auckland and another in New Plymouth, and entered the UK market in 2012, currently with four venues across London.
In 2022, Ozone Coffee appointed Lizzie Gurr as its Chief Executive Officer. Formerly the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Lizzie managed a global team while building and scaling Ozone’s business in the United Kingdom.
