Thought leaders gathered in Melbourne to discuss key industry issues at the 2025 GCR Leaders Symposium. From expansion at scale to supply chain challenges, here are the highlights from this year’s series of panel discussions.
Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) welcomed record crowds for its 2025 event, almost doubling last year’s attendance numbers with more than 31,000 coffee professionals and enthusiasts visiting the tradeshow from 20 to 22 March. The first two days of the event saw industry members convene for breakfast and a networking opportunity before the sell-out GCR Leaders Symposium.
Former Global Coffee Report Editor and Prime Creative Media Publisher Sarah Baker moderated the series of panel discussions, which featured industry thought leaders and explored current industry trends and challenges.
Expansion on a global scale
The first session of the GCR Leaders Symposium focused on doing business overseas, how to approach the international market, the realities no one talks about, and how to build community in a foreign city.
Shae Macnamara, Founder of Expat. Roasters in Indonesia, kicked off the discussion by sharing the non-negotiables he put in place to grow his wholesale coffee customers from zero in 2016 to more than 650 today.
“When you have almost 700 wholesale customers, they are all representing your brand. Therefore, very early we had to set in place our service and quality standards to ensure our coffee was served to the standard we expect,” said Macnamara.
“We now have trainers across Indonesia who complete audits at all our wholesale partners once every four to six weeks. If coffee isn’t being prepared to our standards, we offer training up to three times, after that we will remove the brand from that customer. It’s strict, but it’s part of our non-negotiables to maintain quality.”
The conversation then turned to international expansion, with Toby’s Estate General Manager Jody Leslie sharing insights from the Australian roaster’s expansion into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States (US).
“No marble was spared in the opening of our new site in the UAE within the long-awaited Dubai Mall. The budget for the new store was definitely more than we’d spend in Australia, but in the UAE we’re able to charge a little more,” said Leslie.
“In the Middle East, opening hours are a lot longer and the demand for coffee higher. Coffee shops are a gathering place and many stay open until around 2am, therefore the financial model is very different. People expect to pay double for a cup of coffee in the Middle East in comparison to Australia, and the sites are a lot more luxurious.”
With the next flagship from Toby’s Estate due to open in New York City midway through 2025, the discussion then explored the untapped potential of the US market. Michael Meates, Founder of Day For It Hospitality, believes smaller cities such as Austin and Nashville provide huge opportunities for specialty coffee brands.
“Everyone goes to establish themselves in New York, but over the past couple of years I’ve seen some great brands have huge success in smaller markets. Places like Nashville and Austin have a fantastic, affluent crowd who are screaming out for speciality coffee – they want an elevated experience and are happy to pay New York prices,” said Meates.
“That’s the amazing thing about these smaller markets. You’re going to charge US$8 or $9 for a latte, but you won’t be paying New York premiums for real estate. You have much more potential to have a bigger venue, which means more room for things like kitchens and event spaces.”
The megatrends shaping coffee’s future
With more than 25 years’ experience in the industry, including Managing Director roles at Nestlé, international coffee consultant Gerd Mueller-Pfeiffer delivered this year’s keynote speech on the megatrends shaping the future of coffee. He explored the global coffee phenomenon and the growth of the industry over the past 30 years, highlighted the importance of cold coffee and ready-to-drink products, and discussed the trend for market consolidation, among many other topics.
“In the past 30 years, the consumption of coffee has doubled. In 1994, the production was around 90 million bags, while in 2024 it was 176 million bags,” said Mueller-Pfeiffer.
“In the near future, we will start to see production countries such as Ethiopia turn into consumption countries. India is another production country that’s starting to become a consumer – the coffee category there has grown around 10 per cent in the past 10 years to US$400 million.”
He also highlighted South Korea as a place of interest. The East Asian country has a population of around 51 million people, but has more than 100,000 coffee shops. In its capital, Seoul, Starbucks operates 3000 stores – in the entire country of Germany the café chain operates 156 venues.
“Seoul has the highest concentration of coffee shops in the world and is a trendsetter for global coffee innovation,” he said.
When discussing the challenges facing the coffee market, Mueller-Pfeiffer focused on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, container shortages, frosts in key production regions, and inflation.
“The past five years have not been easy. Coffee is getting more expensive for everyone. As a consumer, you should buy coffee now instead of summer as I guarantee it will increase in price by 10 to 15 per cent,” he said.
“Another major concern is the average age of farmers, which in many origin countries is around 55 years old. There is an urban exodus of the younger generation who don’t want to become farmers, and this will lead to less coffee being available if a solution isn’t provided.
“The future of coffee is in our hands. In a way, coffee is crisis proof and will continue to exist. Despite all the challenges on the global scale, the demand for quality and sustainability is growing. Optimisation and artificial intelligence will become much stronger and coffee as an experience will continue to grow.”
Coffee at scale
On day two of the GCR Leaders Symposium, the first panel deep-dived into the Australian quick-service sector, discussing the evolution of the foodservice category, growing consumer connection, coffee pricing, and balancing quality versus volume. Joining moderator Sarah Baker was Jared Chapman, Head of McCafé, Liam O’Brien, 7-Eleven Product Owner Dispensed Beverages, and Sam Taylor, Soul Origin National Coffee Manager.
Chapman discussed McCafé’s journey from its inception in Melbourne in 1993 to its current success, which sees the business serve around 600,000 cups a day across Australia. Producing one in five coffees served in the country, McCafé has the challenge of creating a blend that will appeal to the masses.
“It’s definitely a challenge and you can’t make everyone happy. The most important factor is listening to what the customers want. Generally speaking, we alter the blend every three to five years, but that’s determined by what we’re hearing from our customers. Our current blend is a mix of Brazil, Honduras, Ethiopia, and Kenya,” he said.
“Consistency is hugely important to us and to achieve that we focus on training. We have roughly 15,000 baristas across the country, so you can imagine getting them all to do things in a consistent way is not easy. But what we are passionate about is passing on that passion and knowledge to the rest of the team, and to do that we have set up five barista academies across Australia to elevate that training.”
In 2009, 7-Eleven stores in Australia started selling coffee for AU$1 and, despite increasing the cup price to AU$2 in 2022, has kept the price remarkably stable despite the rest of the market feeling the pinch.
“For the 450 7-Eleven franchise owners across the country, coffee is very important for foot traffic and so we are continuing to ensure we can hold onto that for as long as possible. In an ideal world, we don’t want to put that at risk,” said O’Brien.
“Our coffee program has been so successful because of the consistency of the offer. With the push-button machines we use, you get a consistent quality that doesn’t depend on the experience of a barista. In 15 years, we have only changed our blend once, almost two years ago, which was the result of almost 18 months of research.”
Barista-made coffee is a core pillar of Soul Origin’s nutritious fast-food offering. Taylor said one of the keys to the brand’s success is being a founder-led business.
“We are about 13 years into this journey and have grown very quickly, but we’ve done it with the foundational principles of taking a fresh-food approach and well-made coffee. One thing I’ve learnt is meeting customers at their level and understanding what they want and how they like to drink their coffee, and that leads to product innovation,” he said.
“Sourcing and making sure the farmers that produce our coffee are getting their value helps to influence the way customers feel safe with our brand. So, our challenge is helping baristas to understand the supply chain in a quick and translatable way.
“It’s important for them to understand the journey that those beans have gone on and how many touch points there are in the supply chain. This influences the level of care when producing that cup of coffee, which they then pass on to the customer who ultimately enjoys it.”
The supply chain challenges we face
In the final panel discussion, members of the Australian Coffee Traders Association explored the roadblocks in green bean transportation and logistics, the pricing crisis and its impact across the supply chain, and solutions to drive the industry forward. The panel featured Luke Terrey of Condesa Co Lab, Stephen Bannister of Cofi-Com, Angelo Augello of Bean Alliance Group, and Dominic Enthoven of MPC International.
“The past five years have been very challenging from a transport perspective. It started with COVID-19 in 2020, then in March 2021 the ship got stuck in the Suez Canal. Then came Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the Hamas attacks on Israel, which saw Houthi rebels in Yemen attack ships. It’s been a series of unfortunate events stretching into 2025,” said Enthoven.
“It’s sometimes said that shipping lines like disruption because when you have disruption, rates tend to go up. In 2022, amid much of the disruption, shipping lines made massive profits.”
Enthoven suggested that green bean merchants spread their risk and strengthen relationships with long-term partners.
“It’s not going to get much better in the next 12 months, so it’s a chance to take stock, look at your business, and diversify your suppliers,” he said.
“On the commercial side, keep on the competition and see what they’re doing. If you’re looking too much at internal processes, you’ll lose sight of what the rest of the world is doing.”
Venus Packaging, a 100 per cent Australian-owned packaging solutions provider, supported this year’s GCR Leaders Symposium in addition to showcasing its products on the MICE show floor.
“Venus Packaging aims to bring innovative packaging solutions to the coffee industry. The GCR Leaders Symposium brings together industry leaders and experts to discuss challenges and opportunities. By sponsoring this event, we aim to contribute to meaningful conversations that drive the industry forward,” said Laura Venus, Director of Venus Packaging.
“The Symposium was an incredible opportunity to gain valuable insights and explore the future of the Australian coffee industry. We personally loved the discussion on day one, Expansion on a Global Scale. Shae, Michael, and Jody had a wealth of knowledge that was very insightful, and it was inspiring to hear about the many great things Australians are doing for the coffee industry overseas.”
The GCR Leaders Symposium will return at MICE2026, which will take place in Melbourne from 26 to 28 March. For more information, visit internationalcoffeeexpo.com
This article was first published in the May/June 2025 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.
