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Where did you get this great coffee?
They brought some of their favourite beans with them when they moved to New Zealand two years ago. Soon friends were asking "where did you get this great coffee?" and their personal supply ran out.
It is rapidly becoming a popular choice for coffee devotees thoughout New Zealand and further, largely through internet sales, and customers include business house, cafes and restaurants as well as individual coffee drinkers. With coffee now established as the elixir of the new millennium - it's the world's most popular beverage - their superb washed, Grade 1 Arabica beans, sourced from the mountain slopes of the Shire Highlands of Malawi, is stiff competition for blends from more well known coffee houses.
Roger's coffee experience started when offered a job by the Commonwealth Development Corporation to create plantations for 200 hectares of irrigated coffee and 100ha of macadamia trees. This involved establishing nurseries and supervising construction of a coffee factory.
Although Roger was regarded as one of the rising stars of Malawi's blossoming coffee industry, the couple were unhappy with the political situation and the lack of educational opportunity for their children.
Coming across Pirongia soon after their arrival, they found it a perfect spot. A criteria for Liz - after the Malawi experience - was that the family could be together with a five-minute walk to a village school for the children. Mission accomplished.
The coffee beans are specially imported from the best plantations in Malawi and roasted in nearby Te Awamutu before being distributed from their Pirongia property either roasted or ground. Roger and Liz believe the secret to their success is the personal commitment they put behind guaranteeing the integrity of the product. Their credentials are probably unique in New Zealand, with experience in growing, roasting and marketing the flavourful and aromatic Arabica coffee, imported directly from private plantations on prime estates of origin in a region becoming increasingly recognised for its superior quality. Hence the company's name and promise: "Origin - Our coffee, grown for you." This unique proposition - built on knowledge and personal expertise - sets Origin apart from other New Zealand coffee importers. |
Malawi?
A young immigrant couple, Roger and Liz Sheppard, who've settled
in the tiny Waikato town of Pirongia, are introducing New Zealand
coffee aficionados to a gourmet product from the central African
country where Roger ran plantations.
They imported another small amount to sell
to friends, and that went quickly, too. An opportunity was
brewing. Now Roger has left his job as general manager of a
mushroom farm to concentrate full-time developing their new
Origin Coffee business.
Pirongia village, with about 200 houses,
may sound a strangely remote place to launch an internationally
known product, but there's good reason. New Zealand's superb
rural life style combines excellently with the latest facilities
allowing for good communication and efficient post/courier
servicing not only within New Zealand but also the rest of the
world. There is certainly no necessity for the more expensive
overheads incurred by setting up in the larger cities.
He was then made coffee manager of
Unilever's Lujeri Tea Estate in Malawi, running five estates
producing around 800 tonnes of coffee per annum, before becoming
managing director and major shareholder of Mountain Ridge Ltd,
Mulanje, Malawi, a 70ha coffee plantation with mushrooms and
livestock.
Liz
remembered New Zealand from her back-packing days in the early
Eighties and they visited in January 1997. Roger's qualifications
soon landed him a job as general manager of a mushroom farm and
the family immigrated a few months later.
Their coffee 'sideline' business, promoted
by word of mouth - and the distinct aroma from their country
kitchen - was boosted by exhibiting at Fieldays, sales to local
cafes and businesses and a mail order service.