Meet Mike, Kokako’s organic, fairtrade coffee lover and all-round good guy
Good Work
Mike Murphy, the dynamo behind fast-growing organic coffee, café and wholesale natural food business Kokako, is a guy with precious little time to spare. After committing to walk Oxfam’s 100-kilometre Trailwalker challenge this year, he and teammates from All Good Bananas found the time to train by walking while conducting their weekly business meetings.
“The ‘walk and talk’ really improved the quality of our thinking. We’d walk all over town, then when we got back we’d fire up the laptop to capture all our great ideas.” It’s worked so well that despite completing Trailwalker in April (100 kilometres in 24 hours, raising $2,050 for Oxfam) they’re keeping up the habit.
It’s that kind of energy and smart thinking that’s seen Kokako double its sales every year since Mike bought the company in 2007. The company has just won a big contract to roast organic coffee for Mac’s Brewery.
Despite Kokako’s growth, Mike’s committed to staying answerable to his customers. “Life gets so busy, if we’re not careful we can start living, shopping—and eating—like robots,” he says. “But people increasingly want to know where their food comes from and what’s in it.”
Companies often have a good idea, create a great brand, then contract out the production. Not Kokako. “We sent one of our recipes to a contract manufacturer but it came back tasting bad,” says Mike. “Keeping things in-house and doing things in small batches means we can maintain consistency—and we can improve. Once some customers pointed out our vanilla essence wasn’t that natural. We took stock and switched to the amazing, pure vanilla extract Equagold. We’re learning all the time.”
Sarah Heeringa
