Roast has aroma of success

Marc Adamson still likes striving for the perfect roast. Picture / Fotopress

Coffee is on Marc Adamson's mind as he walks to work in the morning.

He does not have a coffee machine at home so he paces out the five-minute walk to his Royal Oak cafe-roastery Icoco for the first of his three daily brews.

In this small hub, his fancy for coffee is translated into the smooth, distinct Icoco blends used in cafes all over Auckland.

And the aroma is spreading.

In the last year, the company has begun supplying cafes in Norfolk Island and Rarotonga weekly. Samoa will join the list next month and Singapore is in the pipeline.

The company is also on the verge of entering the competitive European market. Adamson expects that samples of Icoco's organic blend recently sent to a specialty New Zealand health store in Germany will generate a large order next month.

"This will probably change the whole dynamics of the business. We're looking at something bigger than we ever envisaged," he says.

Icoco Roasters started in 1998 with a roastery in Avondale.

Adamson opened the Royal Oak store in 2002 because he wanted to offer other coffee enthusiasts "the whole coffee experience" - tasting it, watching the bean roasting and taking home the blends.

A second Icoco cafe has opened in Blockhouse Bay.

Some of the five Icoco blends are untraditional.

"We're getting away from the long, strong, sharp Italian espresso taste and have created something rounder and softer - something your grandmother's not scared of," he says.

"It's a big, smooth coffee."

And it has attracted a loyal following. Adamson said people travelled from all over Auckland to buy their weekly bag of fresh coffee beans.

Wholesaling to other cafes forms 60 per cent of the business, and the accounts with 24 North Island cafes were largely unsolicited.

Word of mouth has fuelled the huge growth in corporate custom, now building up to 30 per cent of sales. Icoco is also the coffee of choice for a number of film sets.

Although there is plenty happening in the business to keep him busy, Adamson likes to keep his hand in with roasting. After 13 years, it still provides a certain satisfaction.

"You know when you've got it perfect."

Adamson also spends a day or two every few weeks training staff in cafes that serve Icoco. He knows some things are caught, not taught.

"You can't teach people passion. The person behind the machine has to want to make a good coffee."

Adamson realised this himself while a student studying for a Bachelor of Commerce.

He took a waiter's job at a cafe "because I needed the money" and enjoyed it so much he never made it into accounting - although the degree has come in handy with the business.

Adamson opened his first cafe in Queenstown, then sold it in 1992 to set up the Atomic Cafe chain in partnership with Chris Priestly in Auckland.

He sold out after five years to go overseas, but coffee, of all things, brought him back. In all his travels, he did not find any "sophisticated" coffee markets to match New Zealand's "fantastic coffee culture".

Eager to get back into that culture, he started Icoco - named after an African clay pot used for roasting coffee beans over an open fire - with partners Jose Rivera and William Keung.

A recent glance at a diary he started in early days of the business had them all astonished at the rapid growth, from roasting 27kg of beans a month to 1500kg now.

If Germany takes off, this quantity could multiply rapidly.

"We will definitely be looking to move to bigger premises and get a bigger roaster."

A fulltime salesperson will also be added to the staff of five in the new year.ON