in Huntingfield quickly turned into multiple days a week as word spread of the quality of Villino’s coffee. Eventually assistance was required to keep up with demand and he started building his roastery team. “I used to go down there a day a week and roast which soon became two then three, then someone would come and help me and gradually it just turned into this thing where people were like, ‘oh, you roast your own coffee, can I buy it for my cafe or my restaurant?’” Schramm says. “Then that turned into a wholesale business. It wasn’t really the initial plan, to be a wholesale business of the size that we are now. It started with having more control over the quality of what we were doing and then when we worked hard at it with a focus on quality, people came along and wanted to be part of that as well. So we started doing a little bit of wholesale and then it just organically grew.”
This growth has led to the business’ latest expansion – a permanent, purpose built facility in Sunderland St in Moonah which is now home for all the company’s roasting, as well as Wondr, a café which joins Villino and its ‘little sister’ Ecru in Criterion St. The difference with Wondr is patrons will be able to catch a behind the scenes glimpse of the scale of Villino’s operation while they enjoy their fresh brew. The warehouse contains three Probat roasting machines (5kg, 12kg and 22kg), houses a cupping lab and quality control room, a workshop for repairs and maintenance as well as training classroom for wholesale customers which Schramm also hopes can be used for the public to engage in coffee and events. “This sort of thing has been on the cards for a very long time, but it’s never quite been the right time to do it. I always wanted to have a space where what we do is on display for people, a fishbowl set up where you can sit and have a coffee and see what goes on behind the scenes. The scale of what we do, the equipment and
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