Quality coffee on the go

Perth's love affair with quality coffee is producing an emerging market for mobile coffee vendors.

Several operators have started businesses in the past two years, driving to business parks, major festivals and sporting events, and selling coffee from their vehicles.

Similar to the Jiffy Foods and Mr Whippy vans, the mobile coffee vendors have dedicated routes or take bookings from offices.

Rosal and Paul Mullins launched Kiss Café two years ago and it has been such a success that they’re franchising the concept.

“My first day was ridiculous,” Ms Mullins said.

“I stopped and parked outside Rusty [surfwear manufacturer] and, feeling like a complete idiot, I knocked on their door and said I was serving coffee from the Hilux outside.

“They were really great about it and I kept knocking on doors and know the [Osborne Park] round is big enough to be split in two.”

Ms Mullins said one vehicle had been sold as a franchise operation, and she anticipated 25 Kiss Café franchises would be on the road within five years. 

Ms Mullins works the corporate market from Monday to Friday and devotes the weekends to junior sport. She said serving quality coffee was important to its success.

“It’s not one of those vans with boiling water and instant coffee,” Ms Mullins told WA Business News.

Kiss Café operates two dual-cab Hilux vehicles, one which has recently been franchised.

The coffee machine is housed on the tray of the vehicle and its outside panels are lifted up to allow access from outside.

“We thought about using a van but we’d have to add chairs and a generator, so the dual cab was ideal,” Ms Mullins said.

There are at least a half a dozen businesses that have set up in the past 12 months, using utes or vans.

And it’s not just the metro area that’s experiencing the boom for mobile coffee vendors.

Yallingup coffee roaster Yahava Koffee Works launched its first coffee van last year.

It’s in the process of building a second, and Yahava Koffee Works master roaster Alex Kok said the business was in hot demand.

“We’ve got 42 bookings from August to April next year and that’s about all we’ll be able to do. They’re all big events like the Margaret River Wine Festival,” he said.

Muzz Buzz has established two drive-through coffee shops in Western Australia, providing ample evidence that buying a coffee on the go has become a popular choice for hundreds of consumers in Perth.