A few weeks back, we transformed Pablo & Rusty’s cafe at 161 Castlereagh St into a buzzing playground of flavour, innovation and profitability. With nearly sixty cafe partners and their teams filling the room, Signature Beverage was a demonstration of what a cafe can be when creativity meets commercial smarts.
Kicking off the night, we went straight for the truth that cafes are working harder than ever, but not always smarter. Profitability today is about making every cup, every order and every experience count.
And that started with the conversation many cafe owners avoid: coffee pricing. Why charging $5.50 is the minimum cafes should be charging for a small coffee.
One of the first challenges I put to the room was this: If you’re serving premium coffee, especially from a brand like Pablo & Rusty’s, you have the license to charge a premium price.
Which led to the big question of the night: Why are so many cafes still charging prices that belong in 2019?
What we know from customer behaviour is simple: People don’t avoid cafes because the small flat white is $5.50. They avoid cafes that are inconsistent, poorly presented or using average coffee.
If you believe your coffee is premium but your price isn’t, there’s a mismatch, and it’s costing more than just margin. Low prices undermine brand perception, reduce investment in staff and keep cafes stuck in survival mode.
So we challenged our partners to rethink each cup as a profit centre, not a loss leader.
Consistency + quality + experience = higher perceived value = higher prices = healthier cafe.
A coffee bar setup that sells more coffee
From there, we took our guests over to our “ideal bar setup”, a clean, efficient and modern workflow that shows exactly how a profitable coffee station should run.
We showcased the new Milkpal, a hot and cold milk technology unit that produces consistent, silky, barista quality milk at the press of a button. For many operators, labour and inconsistency are the silent killers of profitability. Milkpal is already changing that at several P&R cafes reducing waste, speeding up service and cutting staffing pressure.
If automation sounds scary, it shouldn’t. When used properly, automation doesn’t replace craft, it protects and enhances it. And it’s becoming increasingly clear that the cafes who embrace smart technology are the ones who will stay competitive as wages rise and talent becomes harder to find.
Why every cafe should have a retail shelf
One of the liveliest parts of the night was our retail section, where cafe operators could see exactly how adding a small retail shelf can add up to $1,000 in additional weekly revenue.
Thirty percent of Australians who make coffee at home buy their beans from cafes. That means the cafe experience doesn’t end at the counter, it follows the customer home. By offering beans, capsules, pourtables, and other retail products, cafes create a new revenue stream with no additional labour, almost no wastage and margin that often outperforms the wet coffee menu.
It’s one of the simplest “profit unlocks” available, and we’re seeing strong operators lean into it with real success.
The main event: Six signature drinks crafted for summer profit
Then came the part everyone was waiting for, the Signature Beverages. Four stations, each offering live demonstrations, recipe cards, cost breakdowns and of course, tasting samples. A showcase of what summer menus should look like: visually striking, scalable and highly profitable.
The lineup included:
- 🔴 The Malteaser
- 🥃 Old Fashioned (coffee-infused)
- 🍊🍫 The Jaffa
- 🥥 Coconut Matcha Cloud
- 🍵 Matcha Foam + Flavours
- 🍓🍰 Clarified Coffee Strawberry Cheesecake Milk Punch
Every drink was built using Pablo & Rusty’s matcha, chocolate and coffee concentrate products, meaning cafes can serve high impact beverages without slowing down service or blowing out their cost of goods.
The highlight?
The Clarified Coffee Strawberry Cheesecake Milk Punch, our final “shared” drink of the night. Watching sixty cafe operators walk around with the same cocktail, discussing margins, flavour combinations and customer appeal was a reminder of exactly why this industry continues to evolve, hospitality thrives when creativity and business sense work together.
If there was one message that defined the night, it was this: Cafes don’t succeed because their coffee is good, they succeed because their model is profitable. For the purpose of this event and of course not an exhaustive list, get profitable by:
- Using Premium coffee
- Correct cup pricing
- Building that retail shelf
- Embrace Smart automation for your coffee machine platform
- Adding a signature drinks program that attracts customers and accelerates margin
It’s not one thing. It’s the combination. This is the direction cafes across Australia are heading, and we’re proud to be helping our partners lead the way.
Here’s to a profitable summer and to the signature beverages that might just make it your best one yet.
