Guides
Running a roastery
Pricing, margins, cash flow, staffing, production planning and stock control for a roastery that already trades.
- How to price wholesale coffee from your real cost per kiloStart from cost, not from the roaster down the road. A five-step method to build a wholesale price per kilo that survives a rise in green prices, with a worked example.8 min read
- Pricing retail coffee bags: pack size, postage and price pointsA 250 g bag carries the same label, valve and pick-and-pack time as a 1 kg bag. Price per bag, not per kilo, and count postage and fees before you decide what you make.6 min read
- Gross margin per kilo: the number that runs a roasteryTurnover tells you how busy you are. Gross margin per kilo, by channel and by coffee, tells you which customers and products actually pay the rent.7 min read
- Cash flow in a roastery: green coffee, credit terms and growthYou pay for green coffee weeks or months before a cafe pays you for the roasted result. Here is where the cash goes, the forecast that shows it early, and the levers that bring it back.7 min read
- Staffing a roastery: the first hires and how to schedule themThe first hire is rarely a roaster. It is usually someone to pack, dispatch and clean so the founder can roast and sell. How to plan the roles, the hours and the legal basics.6 min read
- Production planning: from orders to a roast listA roast plan answers four questions: what is ordered, what is already roasted, how much green that needs after roast loss, and how many batches fit the week. The method, step by step.7 min read
- Batch scheduling: the order you roast in mattersThe first batch of the day, the gap between batches and the order of coffees all change how a roast turns out. A practical approach to sequencing a roast day for consistency and throughput.6 min read
- Roast loss and shrinkage: where your kilos goEvery 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.6 min read
- Stock control for green coffee, roasted coffee and packagingA roastery holds three kinds of stock with three different clocks: green that ages over months, roasted coffee that ages over weeks, and packaging with long lead times. How to control each.7 min read
Run the roastery from one place
Green stock, roast plans, wholesale orders and the green coffee market in one platform, with a free roast-logging app for your machine.