Deb and Ian Riach, the founders and owners of Coffee Worx Coffee Roastery are set to expand their now well-established coffee roasting operation in Christchurch. In 2006 the Riach’s purchased a small boutique coffee roastery which they rebranded as Coffee Worx. The roastery was purchased to support the expansion of their Yellow Rocket Bagels and Coffee franchise which had three outlets, when the earthquakes decimated the chain, and they lost all three outlets in the fateful 2011 disaster. This left them with just the coffee roastery, so they picked up the pieces from the loss of their retail chain and began again by supplying their premium coffee blends to other cafes and hospitality outlets. Their long history in the coffee industry put them in a knowledgeable position to help support new entrants to hospitality and after winning several awards with their coffee blends at the NZ Coffee Awards, their fledgling business began to take flight.
Alongside the flagship Coffee Worx brand, the Riach’s developed their Heartland Brew Coffee brand to supply Trents wholesale. The coffee became popular it became the first ranked coffee through Trents, so they decided to expand its distribution to New World and Pak n Save supermarkets in the South Island. Despite the hardships of the Covid era the business has continued to thrive and now they can no longer keep up with production demand as premium coffee continues to gain popularity with domestic and business users. They have taken the plunge and leased a building next to their Christchurch distribution center and bought a larger 60kg capacity roaster, which will allow further growth of their increasingly popular brand.
