Grinders Coffee was not launched to become a large supplier of coffee and coffee equipment throughout the whole of Australia. It was begun because two Lygon Street Melbourne coffee roasters believed they could do better than what was available.
Packaging would not have become one of the things they had to get right had they remained a supplier to cafes and restaurants. But the coffee was so popular that expanding into the domestic retail market became a logical step.
There are now several grinders ranges and the Fairtrade Organic Grocery range has won a lot of awards. So it is getting the packaging that complements its status, with an eye-catching coffee bean on the vine motif and a new prominence for the features that set this range apart to discerning coffee buyers – the origins of the beans and that they are both Fairtrade and organic.
Grinders is the largest roaster of Certified Fairtrade coffee beans in Australia, so this was an important feature to highlight. On its fiftieth anniversary, two years ago, Grinders announced that its fairtrade and Rainforest ranges would move to new biodegradable foil.
“We want to be at the forefront of social responsibility. We’ve seen this packaging used successfully in the United States, and we want to be a leading company in Australia demonstrating social responsibility,” grinders general manager, James Hondrakis, announced in April 2012.
Grinders also led the Australian industry in coffee packaging with the early introduction of one-way valves, which allow the carbon dioxide that coffee beans emit to escape while maintaining freshness.
The strength of the beans, whether they are whole or ground and how best to use them is now clearly communicated too on the new packs.
The three varieties are colour-coded for easy identification. Dark roasted Rich Espresso is predominantly amber-orange and medium roasted Smooth Crema is beige-caramel – both colours enlivened with gold. The packs with their white backgrounds and strong metallic colours are designed for high visibility on increasingly competitive shelves, especially in Coles and Woolworths.
