The business of coffee roasting, written down

Starting a roastery

Business plans, startup costs, premises, registration, food safety and insurance: what to sort out before the first bag is sold.

• How to start a coffee roasting business in the UKEleven steps from idea to first wholesale invoice, in the order that saves you money: what to decide first, what the law requires, and where most new roasteries lose time.9 min read
• Writing a coffee roastery business plan that a lender will readA roastery plan lives or dies on four numbers: kilos sold per week, price per kilo, cost per kilo and fixed costs. Here is how to set each one out, and what a bank or investor will test.8 min read
• How much does it cost to start a coffee roastery?The roaster is the biggest line, but installation, extraction, stock and three months of running costs usually add as much again. A line-by-line budget, with a worked example you can copy.8 min read
• Roastery premises: planning use, smoke, odor and the leaseThe questions to settle before you sign a lease on a roastery unit: what the planning use allows, whether smoke and odor will be a problem, and whether you can get gas, power and a flue where you need them.8 min read
• Registering a coffee roastery as a food businessRegistration is free and quick, but it has to happen at least 28 days before you trade. Here is the process, what the first inspection looks at, and how the hygiene rating applies to a roastery.6 min read
• A HACCP plan for a coffee roastery, hazard by hazardCoffee is a low-risk food, which is exactly why roasters underestimate the plan. Here are the process steps, the hazards that genuinely apply, the controls an inspector expects and the records that prove them.9 min read
• Insurance for a coffee roastery: what you need and whyOne policy is compulsory as soon as you employ anyone; the rest are what your landlord, lender and wholesale customers will ask for. What each covers, and the roastery-specific questions insurers ask.6 min read
• Sole trader, partnership or limited company for a roastery?The structure decides who is liable when something goes wrong, how profits are taxed and how easy it is to bring in a partner or sell. A plain comparison for roastery founders.6 min read

Equipment

Choosing, buying, installing and maintaining roasters, afterburners, extraction, grinders and packing kit.

• Choosing a coffee roaster: batch size, fuel and designSize the roaster from the volume you expect in year two or three, not from what you sell today, then let fuel, site and support narrow the field. A buyer's framework, not a brand list.9 min read
• Gas or electric coffee roaster?The choice often makes itself once you know what supply your site has. Where it does not, compare installation, control, running cost and the rules each fuel brings.6 min read
• New or used coffee roaster: weighing the riskA used roaster can halve the biggest line in your budget. It can also arrive with a warped drum, an obsolete control board and no one to fix it. How to decide.6 min read
• Buying a used coffee roaster: the inspection checklistWhat to ask before you travel, what to look at with the machine cold, what to watch with it running, and the paperwork that should come with it.8 min read
• Sourcing a roaster from abroad: import, standards and supportA roaster bought abroad can look much cheaper until it is landed, converted, certified and supported. The checks to make before you pay a deposit.7 min read
• Afterburners, catalytic units and roaster emissionsSmoke and odor are the most common reason a roastery gets into trouble with neighbours. What afterburners and catalytic units do, what they cost to run, and how to decide whether you need one.7 min read
• Extraction and ventilation in a roastery: fumes, dust and fireThe roaster's exhaust carries smoke and chaff out; the room still needs air for the burner and protection for staff from roasting fumes and dust. The rules and the practical design points.7 min read
• Grinders for a roastery: retail ground coffee and QCA roastery needs a grinder for selling ground coffee and another for cupping and QC. What to look for in each, and the safety and freshness points that come with grinding.6 min read
• Packing coffee: heat sealers, fillers and packing linesPacking is where a growing roastery loses the most hours. When to move from a scoop and a sealer to a weigher, and from a weigher to a packing line, and what each step costs in accuracy and flexibility.7 min read
• A maintenance schedule for your coffee roasterMaintenance keeps roasts consistent, prevents fires and is what your insurer asks about after one. A daily, weekly, monthly and annual schedule you can adapt to your machine.6 min read
• Leasing, hire purchase or buying roastery equipmentPaying cash for a roaster is cheapest on paper and riskiest for cash flow. How leasing, hire purchase and loans compare, and how to work out the real cost of each.6 min read

Selling coffee

Wholesale, cafe accounts, subscriptions, online shops, markets and private label.

• Selling wholesale coffee to cafes: winning and keeping accountsCafes rarely switch roaster for a slightly better coffee. They switch for reliability, support and someone who understands their business. How to find, win and keep wholesale accounts.8 min read
• Cafe account terms: credit, minimums and equipment on loanMost bad debts and lost machines in roasting come from accounts opened on a handshake. The terms to put in writing before the first delivery, and how to enforce them politely.7 min read
• Running a coffee subscription: pricing, churn and fulfillmentSubscriptions turn one-off buyers into predictable weekly volume, paid up front. They also bring postage costs, churn and a fixed dispatch rhythm. How to make them pay.7 min read
• Selling coffee online: shop, postage, rules and repeat ordersAn online shop is open all night, but every order needs packing, postage and an answer when it is late. What a roaster's shop needs, and the rules that come with selling to consumers at a distance.7 min read
• Selling coffee at markets and eventsMarkets put your coffee in front of people who will taste it, buy a bag and subscribe. They also need permissions, a hygiene set-up and a realiztic view of the takings.6 min read
• Private label coffee: roasting for someone else's brandRoasting 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.7 min read
• B2B coffee pricing tiers that protect your marginVolume discounts are fair: bigger accounts cost less to serve per kilo. But tiers built on guesswork give away margin. Build each band from your cost to serve.6 min read

Quality and production

Consistency, QC programmes, cupping, roast logging and the software that holds it together.

• Roast profiling basics for consistency, not just flavorA profile is a recipe that anyone trained can repeat. The business value of profiling is not one perfect batch, but the same good batch every week on any shift.7 min read
• Building a QC program for a roasteryQuality control is a set of small, regular checks with clear rules for what happens when one fails. A program a small roastery can run every week.7 min read
• A cupping protocol for production, not competitionsProduction cupping answers one question: is this batch the same as the reference? A simpler, faster method than full scoring, with the controls that keep it honest.6 min read
• Development time and roast logging: the business caseEvery batch you do not log is a batch you cannot repeat, explain or improve. What to log, how development time fits in, and what good records save in money and time.6 min read
• Roastery software buyer's guide: what to look forRoastery software ranges from free roast loggers to full business platforms. The categories, the questions that separate them, and how to choose for the roastery you will be in two years.8 min read