Type Private Number of locations 65+ Founded 1996 | Founder Kenton Campbell Number of employees 200+ (2007) Headquarters Gold Coast, Australia | |
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Industry Retail Coffee and
Retail Beverages Services Coffee, Chocolate Drinks Profiles | ||
Zarraffa's Coffee is a semi national coffee house chain located primarily in Queensland, Australia and with franchises in Western Australia and New South Wales.
Contents
History
Zarraffa's Coffee, established in 1996 by Kenton Campbell, was originally a roasting house operating from the backstreets of Southport on the Gold Coast. It opened its first store on the Gold Coast with three tables and nine chairs in 1996. Currently, the Zarraffa's Coffee group now has 70 stores throughout Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.
Campbell, a seasoned coffee-cart owner from Seattle, Washington, was headhunted to Australia as a consultant in 1995. Relations with his employer soured and he ended up on the Gold Coast with his physiotherapist - now wife and mother of his three sons. In the first Zarraffa's Coffee outlet, financed with a $9,000 personal loan, which was located "in the middle of nowhere" - a ghost-town shopping arcade where the only attraction was low rent and a post office next door, became a favoured cafe spot, drawing a big enough crowd for Kenton to negotiate a better position in the arcade.
By the end of 2007, Zarraffa's had 35 stores, including its first Drive Thru.
By 2009 the company had 40 stores, including a second Drive Thru in Toowoomba and a Central Queensland store at Rockhampton. Also in 2009 Kenton Campbell launched Ecoforce, a non-profit charitable foundation established to act as a framework to source and channel funding into necessary research; to investigate, in a highly transparent way pressing environmental and conservation issues.
In March 2010, acclaimed ABC show, Australian Story featured Kenton Campbell and his journey from an unfortunate childhood, to coffee entrepreneur and then conservationist.