Monday, February 22, 2021

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Honing In on our partners: BrewHub

Partnering with Honan since 2019, BrewHub is a specialist provider of workplace coffee experiences. BrewHub works with clients to create spaces within the workplaces for people to meet, connect and engage over a quality cup of coffee or tea. Servicing the corporate sector, the National brand works with a select group of Australia’s top tenants to deliver highly tailored products and services to each client. BrewHub’s simple, high-tech, contactless solutions are supported by a team of dedicated people, centralised management systems and market-leading innovations like touchless and voice-activated machines.

We caught up with BrewHub Managing Director David Scott to learn just how far this Aussie start-up has come since its 2004 inception.

THE CRUX OF YOUR BUSINESS?

At BrewHub, our mission is to connect people in the workplace through beautiful coffee experiences. On a broader level, our purpose is to help people reach their potential - something we’re particularly passionate about. We believe that carrying out responsibilities with purpose and passion is more fun, and helps our company and all those within it build success. We always keep the bigger picture in mind when making decisions.

REFLECTING ON THE YEAR TO DATE, HIT US WITH BREWHUB'S TOP 3 HEADLINES

WHAT ARE THE TOP 3 TRENDS IMPACTING YOUR BUSINESS RIGHT NOW?

  • Touchless coffee ordering.
  • Digitisation of the coffee industry.
  • Environmental and social initiatives from businesses that are tangible, and heartfelt. At BrewHub, we’re far more than just coffee. We’re deeply invested in the multitude of experiences and environments involved in its consumption and production too. Sustainability is particularly important to us. Our commitment to creating a fair and sustainable system means our hubs won’t cost the earth. We're always developing and implementing new ways to reduce, recycle and reuse. This includes a national program to recycle all bags and coffee grounds, developing smaller packaging for our beans and reducing single use packaging and consumables where possible. Our head office and warehouse are solar-powered and we're on the way to moving our fleet to electric vehicles charged on site to further reduce our carbon footprint.

AT HONAN, WE'RE ALWAYS INSPIRED BY BUSINESSES WHO ARE BRAVE ENOUGH TO DO THINGS A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY. TELL US SOMETHING UNEXPECTED OR TRULY DIFFERENT ABOUT BREWHUB.

Traditional office coffee service providers are interested in selling beans or machines. At BrewHub, we’re interested in a broader customer experience - one that extends well beyond the customer’s interaction with our ‘solutions’.  We also take a broad approach to managing not just the coffee needs of our clients, but their entire break out facility.

THEY SAY STRONG BUSINESSES ARE BUILT FROM THE INSIDE OUT. WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THE PEOPLE AND TEAMS BEHIND BREWHUB?

Our key objective is to create an environment where each person understands, embraces and helps to improve our culture and service delivery.  We’re a values-driven organisation and work with customers who are willing to ‘partner’ with us in a manner that reflects our culture too.

AT HONAN, MAINTAINING QUALITY CONNECTIONS WITH OUR PEOPLE, PARTNERS AND THE COMMUNITY SITS AT THE HEART OF WHAT WE DO. WHAT RELATIONSHIPS & CONNECTIONS HAVE BEEN CRITICAL TO YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS IN RECENT YEARS?

The most important connections we have at BrewHub are those with our staff, or as we like to call each other, ‘BrewHubbers’. As a service-based organisation, the connection our staff have to the business is paramount to our overall customer experience. Our BrewHubbers are in our clients’ workplaces every day; preparing coffee equipment, rotating milk, topping up consumables and so on, so our culture and our BrewHub brand experience is ‘live’ every single day.

Our connection with BrewHub customers is also critical. Our business model was not conceived and presented to the market overnight. Since day 1 operations in 2004, our model has been customer-led. We listen to customer suggestions on how we can improve, and regularly feed them into our service proposition.

Furthermore, we have a deep commitment to supporting Indigenous Australia, and our relationship with Zipella has been instrumental in our success with this in recent years.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT FOR THE BUSINESSOVER THE NEXT 6-12 MONTHS?

We are rolling out game-changing software that promises to digitise the entire office coffee experience.  It allows us to scale our back office efficiency and invest more in the customer experience. Watch this space!

HOW HAS HONAN SUPPORTED THE GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT OR EVOLUTION OF YOUR BUSINESS OVER THE TIME WE'VE BEEN WORKING TOGETHER?

Three years ago, BrewHub became a national business. Not a big one necessarily, but national nonetheless. We appointed Honan in 2019 and since that time, they’ve been there to support our work across multiple States and consolidate all our insurances to ensure we were both adequately protected, but enjoying greatest possible efficiencies too.

Our initial engagement with Honan came via the Workplace Risk team who supported us with a Workers’ Compensation program, but we now have our entire insurance portfolio managed by them.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT WORKING WITH HONAN?

We have a relationship with Honan that is very personal. Despite being a global broker, they make us feel important - we know they’ll have the capability to support our every need as we grow from here. Reflecting on this partnership, our shift to Honan has been one of the most successful transitions our business has made in recent years. Insurance and injury management gets almost no airtime anymore - the way it should be!

Discover more in our Partner Q&A Series: Catapult Sports.

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