Coffee Up! - A podcast from the wholesale team at Market Lane Coffee

In our latest podcast episode, Market Lane co-owner Jason Scheltus helps unpack the recent rise in coffee prices, and what it means for cafés, producers and the industry as a whole.

While commodity coffee prices (known as the C price) have always fluctuated with weather, supply and demand, we’ve seen a sharp rise in recent months – more than doubling since early last year. For many producers, this is a welcome shift: for the first time in a long while, the price they receive for their coffee is approaching what it actually costs to produce. But higher prices bring new challenges, rippling through the supply chain, particularly here in Australia, where market saturation and strong competition have kept prices low.

At Market Lane, we’ve built our business around long-term, transparent sourcing relationships. The prices we pay for coffee aren’t linked to the commodity market. Instead, we pay the price dictated by the producer, which is influenced by the cost of production, the quality, and the volume we’re purchasing. We pay well above the commodity or Fair Trade prices. And these amounts remain stable year to year, or they increase. This approach builds trust and helps safeguard quality, even during volatile market periods like the one we’re in now.

For cafés and retailers, these changes are understandably daunting. But there are opportunities, too. Diversifying your offer – such as retailing beans for home brewing – is a great way to maintain accessibility and build value. Doubling down on consistency, quality and customer service is more important than ever. And now might just be the perfect time to share more of the story behind the coffees you serve – who grows them, how they’re produced, and why that matters.

This is a thoughtful, honest and hopeful conversation, and one that we hope helps you feel a little more informed and prepared for the months ahead.

Known as the ‘Land of One Thousand Hills,’ Rwanda is a lush, mountainous country with high elevations, rich volcanic soil, a temperate climate, and abundant sunshine – all of which make it an ideal region for growing coffee. In the aftermath of Rwanda’s devastating genocide, these perfect coffee-growing conditions were identified as a means to help rebuild Rwanda’s agricultural sector and played a significant role in aiding the country’s recovery and supporting its people.

Today, after more than two decades of investment, education, and hard work, Rwanda is internationally recognised for its unwavering commitment to high-quality coffee.

At Market Lane, we have a deep appreciation for Rwandan coffees. Since we opened, we’ve been dedicated to serving these remarkable coffees every year, and together with our sister company, Melbourne Coffee Merchants, we’ve worked tirelessly to grow a market and foster greater appreciation for this country’s incredible coffee.

Having just returned from a sourcing trip, we thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with Aislinn and Abby to hear about their experiences.

Aislinn, a crucial member of the Melbourne Coffee Merchants team, has been an integral part of our coffee-buying efforts in Rwanda for several years. Her expertise and dedication have greatly contributed to our success in sourcing exceptional Rwandan coffees.

Abby, Market Lane’s talented copywriter and storyteller, has been instrumental in shaping our brand’s voice. In the early days of Market Lane, she coined the beloved phrase, “We love to make coffee for the city that loves to drink it.” Today, Abby’s engaging and thoughtful writing is woven into countless aspects of Market Lane, enriching the way we communicate with our customers and building a market for and appreciation of high-quality specialty coffee.

We were delighted to have the wonderful Clare Scott from Bellroy join us at our first Leadership in Hospitality event, which was focused on the theme of team development and culture.

Bellroy’s mission is to inspire better ways to carry, use business as a force for good, and help the world and their crew flourish. As the organisation’s Head of People and Culture, Clare (and her team) are responsible for ensuring that Bellroy attracts, retains and supports its 100-strong crew (working across 14 countries!), while creating a supportive, productive and inclusive culture that aligns with the organisation’s goals and values. A certified ‘Great Place to Work’, Bellroy took out the top small business spot in 2021 and was dubbed ‘Australia’s Best Workplace’. This recognition is testament to the incredible work that Clare and her team do every day.

We knew that we were just scratching the surface with Clare on the night of our Leadership in Hospitality event, so we are very pleased to welcome Clare back for an episode of our Coffee Up! podcast. 

In this episode, Clare discusses the importance of building a healthy culture, while emphasising the value of tension and trust within a team. She also shares insights on Bellroy's unique approach to recruitment, and how they ensure they're hiring individuals who will align with their culture.

🎧 The Knowledge Project: #115 Danny Meyer: Hospitality and Humanity

In our second podcast following our inaugural Leadership in Hospitality event, Kai from our HR team sits down with Huw Murdoch from Wild Life Bakery to chat about team development and culture.

Prior to founding Wild Life, Huw was the manager of Market Lane’s greatly missed Therry St shop, and he was instrumental in helping us establish a presence in the Queen Victoria Market. In 2016, Huw opened Wild Life Bakery on Albert Street in Brunswick East. The bakery quickly became an integral part of the Brunswick East community, and a destination for people seeking out Melbourne’s best sourdough bread. Huw recently opened an outpost, Wild Life Superette, on Sydney Rd in Brunswick.

In this conversation, Huw talks with characteristic thoughtfulness and frankness about the ways he’s worked to foster a positive culture at Wild Life, the privilege and challenges of being an employer in hospitality, the benefits of cross-training team members, and how, at times, being a business owner can challenge his own moral compass. 

In September last year, we hosted our inaugural Leadership in Hospitality event at our roastery and HQ in Brunswick East. These events are an opportunity for us to bring our community together, and for industry leaders to share their experiences and expertise across a broad range of topics. For this first event, Kai from our HR team lead a panel discussion on Team Development and Culture. We quickly discovered that the questions we asked on the night of the event were just the tip of the iceberg, and that our panelists had so much more to contribute to the conversation than the time allowed! So, we decided to follow up and record a podcast with each of our very special guests – the first one being Market Lane’s very own Jenni Bryant.

Since starting with Market Lane in 2010 and becoming a co-owner in 2019, Jenni has been instrumental in establishing a strong and positive culture, which has continued to flourish as Market Lane has grown to eight coffee shops throughout Melbourne, a thriving e-commerce platform, and a flourishing wholesale community. In this podcast, Jenni discusses Market Lane’s approach to fostering a robust and positive workplace culture, what it means to be a people-focused business, and how Market Lane has scaled their HR department over the years as the team has grown. 

In late 2022, in between opening our new Queen St and Sydney Rd shops, Market Lane co-owner Jason recorded a series of three podcast conversations to share some of his experiences and tips on things to consider when opening your own coffee shop.

In Part 3 – the final episode in this series – Jason sits down with Einar, our retail training manager, to talk about menus, merchandise, and marketing and building a regular customer base, as well as important things to consider when hiring team members for a new business.

Have some questions?

You can get in touch with Christian and Tyson from our Wholesale & Partnerships team at [email protected]

In late 2022, in between opening our new Queen St and Sydney Rd shops, Market Lane co-owner Jason recorded a series of three podcast conversations to share some of his experiences and tips on things to consider when opening your own coffee shop.

In Part 2, Jason sits down with Einar, our retail training manager, to discuss some of the ways to navigate council regulations and heritage listings, how to negotiate a commercial lease, and what to consider when establishing a timeline for the fit-out of your new shop. 

In late 2022, in between opening our new Queen St and Sydney Rd shops, Market Lane co-owner Jason caught up with Einar, our retail training manager, to record a series of three podcasts to share some of his experiences and tips on things to consider when opening your own coffee shop.

In Part 1, Jason and Einar discuss the importance of establishing a purpose for your coffee shop, what to consider when choosing a location, why witty puns aren’t always the best choice when naming your business, and why it’s important to establish a realistic budget early.

“It’s important to run a business we can be proud of day to day. It’s a real privilege to own a business and choose the people you work with and how you work. And the thing that comes with that is a moral responsibility to do it in a way that’s right for our staff, our environment, and our communities” – Jason Scheltus, Market Lane Co-Founder

As an organisation that seeks to use business for good, we're always trying to find ways to be and do better. The choice for Market Lane to work to become a carbon neutral business was a natural step, in alignment with our values of sustainability and transparency.

In this podcast episode, Suzie Hoban, our Head of Marketing, Communications & Sustainability, sits down with Market Lane’s Co-Founder Jason Scheltus, to discuss the process of undergoing a carbon neutral assessment, the difference between being Carbon Neutral and Climate Active certified, and what this all means for the businesses who serve Market Lane’s coffee.

Bolivia produces a very small amount of coffee, but what it lacks in scale it makes up for in quality; education and innovation in both growing and processing coffee have lead to some of our most spectacular coffees come from this origin. In this episode, Christian sits down with Market Lane and MCM founder Fleur to learn about the what makes this origin so unique, and discuss the incredible role that the Rodriguez family have played in ensuring the future of the specialty coffee in Bolivia. 

To find out more about our wholesale coffee partnerships, please visit us here.