The Magic of MICE

As conversations turned into handshakes on the trade floor, MICE26 also dug into the dynamics cafés are balancing to succeed in today’s market – profitability versus purpose, efficiency versus hospitality, and price versus value.

As the dust settles from the 13th edition of the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE) – what did the industry learn?

Despite some hesitancy, coffee pricing is on the move. The $6 cup is no longer a talking point, with some flagships pushing through the $7 barrier.

Some café owners are obsessing over cost of goods sold (COGS) as a way to control their balance sheets and offset rising wage costs.

As evidenced across three days on the Café Education Stage, the coffee industry is home to some of the most capable small business owners in any field, navigating labour, logistics, competition, and rising costs all at once.

And automation is no longer a novelty, with technology helping cafés overcome real operational challenges. But the question begs – is it helping or hindering their ability to create an exceptional experience for their customers? And should we be referring to them as ‘customers’ anyway?

Few, if any, platforms push the Australian coffee industry forward each year like MICE. It’s a sanctuary for café owners to test ideas with peers, while discovering new tools, insights, and connections that make their businesses more profitable.

The expo on 26 to 28 March, held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, welcomed 14,159 unique visitors through the doors, with an overall attendance of 25,939.

“We’re extremely happy with the results: bumper crowds, quality leads and genuine business was conducted on the show floor in the most positive environment we’ve had to date. The vibes were extremely high,” says MICE Education Moderator and BeanScene Publisher Sarah Baker.

“We’re really pleased that 35.1 per cent of our trade attendees were café owners and operators, and 29.7 per cent were roasters, indicating that the right audience of decision makers was present.”

That sentiment was felt among the 157 exhibitors too, who displayed the latest in coffee machine and roasting equipment, coffee tools and ancillary equipment, packaging, POS software, dairy and dairy alternatives, bakery items, matcha, and of course, lots of coffee.

For Somage, which produces tea, chai, matcha and other plant-based products, the numbers speak for themselves. The company signed 22 new accounts across three days, with conversations continuing with prospective customers post-show.

“We got a further 57 qualified leads, of which 17 have signed on post-MICE. We’ve also onboarded six more cafés that we didn’t meet at MICE who reached out on their own,” Director of Partnerships Ben Kelly says.

“The café space feels open and evolving, with more focus on the full beverage offer, not just coffee, as well as traditional tea and coffee drinks served differently,” he says.

The team at Coffee Works Express (CWE), an independent equipment importer and distributor, appreciated the ease at which they were able to have intimate, genuine, and quality conversations.

“Having current World Barista Champion Jack Simpson and past champion Pete Licata on the stand was a real highlight,” says Marketing and Brand Manager Natalie Kollar.

“With other former competitors dropping by, it naturally evolved into a space for knowledge-sharing and connection. Moments like that really highlight how much the industry has matured – there’s a strong sense of community now, with leading figures openly engaging, exchanging ideas, and contributing to the next wave of talent.

“It captured the spirit of this year’s show perfectly.”

Vince Monardo, Sales Manager at Naked Syrups, says each year MICE brings something new.

“The excitement and vibe this time were next level – it felt like the industry was moving with real purpose,” he says.

“The moment that really hit me was watching people lean in to learn about our new sticky chai, then light up when they tried the Dubai hot choc – that mix of curiosity, surprise, and pure excitement around the stand summed up the whole vibe of this year’s MICE. I can’t wait for 2027.”

One of the most popular attractions was the Roasters Playground, sponsored by La Marzocco and Riverina Fresh. Thirty-four roasters from across the country took half-day residencies to showcase and celebrate their coffee selections.

MICE26 also marked several firsts, as organisers continue to evolve the expo.

The MICE at Night debut was well received, extending hours until 7.30pm on Friday to accommodate café operators after work. The Trip to Origin feature connected attendees with global producers from 13 countries through cuppings and education sessions spanning regions from Brazil to Vanuatu.

Axil Coffee Roasters won Australia’s Favourite Coffee, while the expanded Coffee Industry Heroes and Product Innovation Awards recognised leading contributors across the sector.

But it was the Café Education Stage, sponsored by Grounded Packaging and powered by BeanScene, that again emerged as a big crowd favourite. Twenty-three session topics and 78 panellists converged across the three days to deliver essential information that café owners can rarely access with such ease.

“The program was designed to be an engaging platform to educate, inspire and motivate café owners with insights that can help grow their business and see it thrive, not just survive, in today’s current climate,” says Sarah, who served as Moderator of the education program.

“We covered everything from profitability and management to matcha madness, the cold beverage revolution, automation, sustainability, and so much more. I loved seeing the crowd taking every seat possible – just to hear from some of the industry’s best business operators.”

Café ownership crash course

Some sessions were so popular on the Café Education Stage that the only seating room left was on the floor, such was the extent of the opportunity to hear from some of Australian coffee’s best and brightest.

Café Management 101, the first session of the expo, was one of those. With four panellists, Sarah drilled into the decisions, systems, and blind spots café owners should consider if they’re already in – or heading into – business.

For Amelia Hicks, CEO and Co-founder of Old Quarter Coffee Merchants, a coffee importer and roaster in Ballina, New South Wales, with four venues, one of the early realisations was understanding the difference between working in the business and working on it. Like many operators, she started out doing everything, but soon realised that approach had limits.

“I had to ask myself, am I doing the $50-an-hour job or the $1,000-an-hour job?” she said. “Working on the business is what gets you the results.”

Nathan Toleman, Founder of The Mulberry Group and who has created a portfolio of much-loved venues such as Higher Ground and Top Paddock, put it more bluntly.

“If you want to grow, you’ve got to let go,” he said.

That’s easier said than done, though. For many owners, the instinct to control every detail can be hard to shake, particularly when expanding into multiple sites. But Nathan argued the real step-change comes from hiring people better than yourself.

“Going from one café to two was a big jump – I kept thinking, how can I manage both, and I’d be walking into the second venue feeling like it wasn’t being done ‘the right way’,” he said. “But the reality is, there’s more than one way to do things. As long as it’s done with purpose, conviction, and from the heart. You’ve got to trust people, give them the opportunity, then get out of their way.”

Finding that sense of purpose was key to building culture, but also sustaining the business through a downturn.

“When things get hard, if you’ve got a strong ‘why’, the ‘how’ becomes easier,” Nathan said. “If you don’t, that’s when people fold.”

Alongside leadership, few topics drew as much attention as leases – often one of the most misunderstood and high-risk aspects of café ownership.

Amelia encouraged new owners to negotiate early, and not be intimidated, noting the rental amount is set in stone once the deal is signed.

Nathan echoed that sentiment, reflecting on how his own approach has evolved.

“My first lease was basically, ‘yep, I’ll take it’ – no contribution, no rent-free period from the landlord. Now I realise landlords need me just as much as I need them,” he said.

“You reach a point where you can say to the landlord, ‘this is what we need to make the relationship work. We can’t have rent exceeding five per cent of revenue, and this is realistically what we’ll take in each week. If you’re not willing to come to the table, then that’s OK. We’re also investing in your property, so there needs to be some contribution from your side too’.”

It’s a lesson Mike Ico learned the hard way too. Despite having no prior experience when he opened his first cafe in 2011 at the age of 23, he has built a portfolio of standout venues, including The Baron and Good Fella.

He has signed leases for each of those six venues and reviewed more than 100 in his time. But that painful lesson came when a turnover rent clause for a shopping centre location was overlooked.

“Our rent started at $30,000 a year and ended up at $140,000 by the seventh year,” he said.

Mike recommends a five-plus-five-plus-five lease, while Nathan a 10-plus-five-plus-five. Either way, both wanted café owners to know they are never completely beholden to the agreement.

“The reality is, leases can be broken – you can sell the business and transfer it, or surrender the lease and pay rent until someone else takes it over,” Nathan said. “So don’t think you’re locked in for 10 years if you’re no longer there.”

“I agree with Nathan,” said Mike adding, “when signing a lease you should want and feel confident that you’re in it for the long run, that your idea and business plan will last, hence the benefits of a long-term lease – i.e. more contributions from the landlord.”

Dave Chauhan, Leadership Strategist and Founder of Nautical Leadership, encouraged operators to rethink how they approach both location and negotiation.

“Most people look at foot traffic and data, but that’s a snapshot of the past,” he said. “What you need to understand is what’s about to happen in that area over the next few years.”

When it comes to negotiating with landlords, he encouraged café owners to sit beside, not opposite, them.

“Understand what they want and how you can help them achieve their incentives, rather than treating it like a tug of war,” he said.

“And don’t try to save $2000 by not seeking a lawyer’s advice on the contract, because the beauty of the game is when you know the rules of the game.”

Overlaying all of this is constant cost pressures.

Wages and COGS are the biggest costs in any business, Amelia said, noting operators typically aim for 25-30 per cent of revenue. Unlike wages, however, COGS is one of the few levers operators can actively control.

She had four key tips. The first was for cafés to know their COGS goal. Secondly, track it constantly – daily or weekly – but don’t wait until the end of the month to reveal performance.

“The third tip is menu design. I’ve been in a position where my COGS hit 50 per cent because I was selling items that cost almost as much to make as I was charging. The key is making sure your best-sellers are the cheapest to make,” she said.

“And finally, it’s the one-percenters – things like portion creep. If you’re putting 10-20 per cent extra on every plate, that can be $10,000 a year multiplied across multiple items.”

Mike agreed that wages remain the biggest pressure point. He found if a café removed table service, it could reduce wages by about seven per cent.

“Retention also plays a role. High staff turnover drives up training and onboarding costs, making stability just as important as efficiency,” he said.

Coffee cup pricing

How much should cafés charge for a coffee? It’s a simple question on the surface, but in reality remains one of the industry’s thorniest issues as cafés balance the sustainability of their business, and the broader coffee industry, against customer expectations.

Abdullah Ramay, CEO of Pablo & Rusty’s Coffee Roasters and a thought-leader on the subject, said cafés are generally charging $5.50 for a small, but the $6 mark isn’t far away.

“There’s a lot of flagships already sitting above that,” he says.

He pointed to his company’s own research showing that if a coffee is priced under $4.50, customers begin to question its quality.

“Once you start going over $6, people start to pay attention. And over $7, you’re potentially going to start losing a lot of people,” he said.

Still, he expects a steady upward movement of around 50 cents to a dollar each year.

While there were questions about how much consumers are engaged with what’s occurring at the farm-level, Abdullah says they do care if their local café disappears.

“We conducted a national survey and found a few things. One is, most Australians think coffee around the world costs about $5.50 – the same as in Australia. When we told them what the price was, willingness to pay increased by 30 per cent because coffee is a core part of people’s daily life,” he said.

Matt Gellert, Founder of Black & White Espresso, a hospitality group with three cafés, overcame the fear factor and raised his prices. His cafés are now “headed close to that $6 mark” – a figure that would have seemed unthinkable not long ago.

“It’s scary and even heartbreaking when you see a valued customer go somewhere cheaper but it’s a lot better to remain profitable and sustainable than it is to keep everybody happy,” he said.

“We didn’t really lose any business, and I think we’re more profitable than we were before.”

Ultimately, Matt said it’s about cafés recognising their self-worth.

“This doesn’t have to be a labour of love. This doesn’t have to be a vocation. This can be a real business, and you can make a life out of this,” he said.

“If you haven’t ever spoken to your biggest competitor… now’s the time. It’s not a race to the bottom. If everyone does it, it’ll be better for everyone.”

Lucy Ward, Green Buyer at ST.ALi Coffee Roasters, said the company’s own coffee shops were already pricing around the $7 mark with confidence.

She said addressing the value gap required “a collective effort from all actors” across the value chain. And while customers may not fully understand what goes into pricing structures, she believed there was room to better communicate the fundamentals – particularly the labour and input costs at farm level.

Has the art of customer service disappeared?

It’s an excellent question, and one that Sarah sought to answer with a panel focused on the soft skills that give cafés their edge.

George Skell, Café Manager at Kuranga Native Nursery’s Paperbark Café, said the answer is less about reinvention and more about returning to fundamentals.

“It’s not hard to be nice,” he reiterated several times.

Under his watch, the venue has recorded a 25 per cent increase in profits while reducing labour costs, a result he attributes to culture and leadership rather than sweeping operational change.

“If you set the example, your staff will follow your lead,” he said. “I can teach skills – I can’t teach personality and attitude. Your staff are your biggest investment. If you find the right ones, hold on to them because they are rare.”

From there, it’s about embedding small, human moments into the rhythm of service. Awareness of families, regulars, and the tone a venue sets from the moment a “guest” walks in.

“I never use the term ‘customer’ – I hate it. A customer goes to the supermarket. You’re a guest and welcome to my home. That shift in terminology I think is really important.

“It’s about creating those authentic experiences. It’s not just about looking after the adults who have the money; take a bit of time with the kids as well. When you make that effort, families return time and again because of the experience.

“And if I see three elderly ladies walk in and one of my staff says, ‘how are you going, guys?’ – I struggle with that. It’s ‘ladies’, ‘folks’, ‘madam’, ‘sir’.”

The venue he manages can reach full capacity 15 minutes after opening. Even during these times, he encourages staff to resist the instinct to rush.

Chris Tate, Operations Manager at Pablo & Rusty’s and Co-Owner of its Sydney CBD store, said automation and more streamlined workflows were reshaping how interactions happen. Rather than eroding service, he sees it as creating space for it.

But that potential is constrained by economics. Years of under-pricing, he noted, have left many venues with reduced margins.

“That margin allows you to invest in your team and deliver exceptional customer experience,” he said. “We’re in a state of flux – but it’s also an exciting inflection point.”

When faced with a customer complaint, Chris pushed back on one of hospitality’s most ingrained ideas – that the customer is always right.

“I think that isn’t always the case,” he said. “And the idea that you look after customers first is also wrong – you need to look after your staff, and they’ll look after your guests (a term he also prefers).”

“In practice, that means equipping teams with both the confidence and agency to respond in the moment, while also recognising when to escalate. It’s also about identifying those tricky “black hole customers”.

“They’re the guests where, if anything can go wrong, it will, and it all seems to land with them,” he said.

His venues attempt to “overwhelm those customers with kindness”, helping turn a problematic experience into an opportunity to reinforce trust.

“We focus on hospitality and the importance of how we make guests feel. This is what people remember,” Chris said.

Adam Bortz, Owner of Little Italy Coffee Roasters was also on the panel. To this day he still marvels at the customer experience he had at Eleven Madison Park, a world-renowned New York City dining destination that achieved the top spot on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list in 2017.

“At the end of the meal, they took myself and my two sisters-in-law on a tour and into the kitchen where they made a lollipop in front of us with a flame gun. My mind was blown – I’ve told that story 150 times,” he said.

Chris also visited that venue and the experience stayed with him too.

“My wife and I were out the front taking the obligatory selfie when one of the staff came out and said, ‘Christopher, Tracy, can I take the photo?’ We hadn’t even entered the venue and they already knew who we were,” he said.

“From there it just rolled on.”

What’s next?

MICE organisers have confirmed dates for the 2027 show, taking place from 4 to 6 March.

“We’re excited about the future of MICE. Most importantly, we’re happy that this year’s show has really helped to unite, motivate and celebrate our industry.

“There’s nothing more rewarding than seeing our exhibitors and the wider coffee community grow from such an important annual event,” Sarah says.

“That’s the power of MICE. Magic happens when we all come together.” 

Speaking Volumes

Navigating awkward growth phases. The challenges of establishing a coffee chain in one of the world’s most discernible markets. Investing in the right talent at the right time.

These were common threads woven throughout the Global Coffee Report (GCR) Leaders Symposium that took place on Friday 27 March, held alongside the Melbourne International Coffee Expo (MICE).

One of the most insightful panels – How to Scale Smart – featured respected names in Australian roasting: ST. ALi Coffee Roasters, Coffee Supreme, Nomad Coffee Group, and Di Pacci Coffee Company – where leaders discussed the secrets to sustained growth.

“I would say, have your cash sorted, and have a mix of people who have been on the journey for phase one,” Coffee Supreme CEO Andrew Low said. “And bring a couple of select people in who’ve seen the other side and can help connect the dots.

“My experience would suggest that getting to a couple of tonnes [per week] is a bit of a grind, but you can get there with some momentum. The hardest gap to transcend is probably two to 10 tonnes, because everything at that point triples in cost, but profit doesn’t come with it for some period of time.”

Nomad Coffee Group CEO Craig Dickson reinforced the importance of disciplined long-term planning.

“When you start projecting five to 10 years ahead, you can see where capacity constraints may emerge. If 2029 is going to look very different to today, that might mean placing an order for a new roaster in 2027,” he said.

“We’ve learned that robust forecasting and forward planning are critical. It’s about building infrastructure that doesn’t just meet today’s needs, but gives you the confidence and flexibility to scale sustainably over the long-term.”

Non-café coffee

The symposium’s Beyond the Café session explored how coffee standards are lifting in airports, service stations, and live events.

“Service stations are either becoming fully automated fuel sites, or hospitality destinations seeking to hold customers at the site, rather than just push them through the network. We’re in the latter,” said Mark McKenzie, CEO of Freedom Fuels, which operates 40 branded retail outlets.

The network is moving from the ‘grab-and-go’ approach, to creating places where people “dwell”. It has leaned into partnerships, including with Merlo Coffee, to build a more compelling offer.

At one site, fuel volumes have effectively doubled – with the main difference being the convenience offering in that time.

“We’ve also seen one in five customers visiting specifically for coffee. We’re effectively being treated as a café. People are using our forecourt for meetings – which tells me the coffee’s OK,” Mark said.

The perception of airport coffee is shifting too. SSP Australia & New Zealand operates more than 100 hospitality outlets across 12 Australian airports, one New Zealand airport, as well as Sydney Central train station.

National Head of Coffee Operations Martin Nguyen said passengers were increasingly encountering café-quality offerings in terminals designed to feel more like retail and lifestyle destinations than transit hubs. In these settings, a six-ounce coffee costs around $6.50 – sometimes $7.

“Delivering quality coffee in high-traffic environments requires a combination of training, workflow efficiency, and smart equipment investment, particularly as operators contend with labour shortages and rising costs,” he said.

Bringing a chain to Australia

Braeden Lord, CEO of Starbucks Australia, delivered the symposium’s keynote address. From its Australian debut more than 25 years ago, Starbucks has grown to 94 locations nationwide.

That theme carried into the final panel: Global Influence in the Australian Coffee Market.

One brand to recently enter Australia is Kopi Kenangan. Founded in 2017 in Indonesia, it now has more than 1,400 stores globally.

Winnie Nawei, Managing Director of Kenangan Coffee Australia, said the move Down Under “challenged us to elevate our standards”.

“In Southeast Asia, we don’t typically offer as many customisation options, but here customers expect it. Our signature Kenangan Latte is quite sweet for the Australian palate, and we received a lot of feedback on that. Now, we offer more flexibility – customers can choose sweetness levels, dairy options, and coffee intensity.”

Sasa Sestic, CEO of Australian roaster ONA Coffee, which he founded in 2008 in Canberra, discussed the brand’s international expansion, starting with Dubai.

“This has been a strategic move. It feels comfortable and small enough, but it’s also big enough to influence what happens in other countries,” he said.

“The attention to detail in café design is next level [in Dubai]. I’ve always focused more on coffee and experience rather than aesthetics, so I’m learning a lot.”

Compared to Australia, coffee can be priced at almost double the rate.

“That allows you to employ more staff and deliver a higher-end experience, without running as lean as you might have to in Australia,” Sasa said.

For more information, visit internationalcoffeeexpo.com