Contract roasting: roasting for others, or having others roast for you
Contract roasting fills a roaster's spare hours, and lets a brand sell coffee without a roastery. How the arrangement works from both sides, and what to agree before the first batch.
6 min read Updated 9 October 2026
In toll or contract roasting, one business roasts coffee for another for a fee. Usually the client owns the green coffee and the brand; the roaster supplies time, machine and skill. It differs from private label, where the roaster usually also buys the green.
How it is priced
Contract roasting is usually priced per kilo of green roasted, or per batch, with a minimum per run. Packing, labelling, storage and delivery are extra services priced separately. Agree how roast loss is handled: the client's green kilos in, roasted kilos out, with the loss recorded per batch.
What to agree
Contract terms
- Who supplies the green, and how it is received, checked and stored
- Profile approval: sample roasts signed off by the client, and the tolerance for production
- Minimum batch size and minimum per run
- Roast loss reporting and what happens to rejected batches
- Packing, labelling and who is responsible for the label
- Lead times and how runs are booked
- Traceability: client lot references kept separate from your own stock
- Liability, insurance and quality claims
- Confidentiality of the client's profiles and suppliers
Using a contract roaster yourself
A contract roaster can carry your volume while your own roaster is being installed, repaired or outgrown. Send your profiles and green, approve samples, and keep a continuity plan on file so your insurer and customers know supply will continue after a breakdown.
Where Roastnet helps
Questions roasters ask
- What is toll roasting?
- Roasting coffee that a client owns, for a fee. The client usually supplies the green coffee and sells the roasted coffee under its own brand.
- Who is responsible for the label on contract-roasted coffee?
- Usually the business that markets the coffee under its name. Agree it in the contract, and keep your batch references on the pack for traceability.
Read next
Private label coffee: roasting for someone else's brand
Roasting under another brand fills spare capacity with predictable volume. It also raises questions about who owns the recipe, who is responsible for the label and what happens if the client leaves.
When to buy a second roaster (and which size)
A second roaster can mean more capacity, a backup for breakdowns, or a small machine for single origins and samples. The signs it is time, and how to choose between a bigger machine and a second one.
Roast loss and shrinkage: where your kilos go
Every kilo of green coffee comes out of the roaster lighter. How much lighter depends on the coffee and the roast, and it changes your cost per kilo more than most price negotiations.
Run the roastery from one place
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