Interview with Dario Scilipoti
The coffee bag is a roasters most direct form of communication with their customer. And roasters put a lot of thought and detail into that bag. Trailblazing South African coffee company, Bluebird Coffee Roastery challenged themselves to reimagining their brand as they grow and evolve, we asked Dario about the process and got some very interesting insights into the philosophy behind the redesign. They were awarded Best Coffee Packaging at the 2024 Coffee Magazine Awards
The blue bag of Bluebird is a distant memory! You have overhauled the look of your growing brand and we’re so impressed with the results, but as a jumping off point, was there any part of you that struggled to let go of the iconic blue bag that established your brand in many customer's minds?
Thanks Mel, I am very happy with and proud of our updated brand CI. I was so ready for the change! I had had the idea for the new look in my mind for 18 months before we started making it a reality. When I first floated the idea with my team and a few close friends, I was asked the same sort of questions. Does it need an update? Won’t our customers miss the illustrated labels? But, I believe in constant improvement and felt that our brand had matured beyond the look of the brand, if that makes sense. Our coffee was standing on shelves in some of the world’s best cafes next to our hero’s bags, like Tim Wendelboe, Sey, Coffee Collective, Friedhats etc and I just wanted to make sure that our brand felt as premium as the coffee in the bags.
For any roastery, the bag is the ultimate marketing and brand opportunity, your touch point with customers, how did you approach this challenge?
I guess I approached the bag as I approach our green buying. I simply thought about what I would like and went from there. I don’t like boxes, I don’t like jars or bottles or cartons. I think coffee belongs in a bag. But the bag must be great to hold, easy to use each morning when I make coffee and it must make me happy to see it :) I like a matte or paper texture, I like a wide stance and a zipper that works well. I wanted to make people smile with small details, like the stripes on the bottom with the smiley face or the novel position of the valve with “Respect your Mother” around it. Katie’s idea! I knew that if we ended up with a bag I loved, others would love it too.
And the bigger question, what does the brand Bluebird Coffee Roasters stand for? What do you want people to see when they see your brand and do you feel you achieved your goal through this rebrand?
I guess I, like so many people, am in pursuit of happiness. I'm quite a sensitive person who struggles with anxiety and I’ve been through some stuff… who hasn’t! When I started roasting coffee I was surfing a heck of a lot and I was shaping a few boards with a friend - we labelled them Happy Surf Co. Bluebird days in the snow were the inspiration for our brand name - perfect, clear blue skies, deep powder and a feeling of complete bliss. When people interact with us or our products, I would love them to feel included, valued and happier! I am trying to balance the constant drive towards the highest quality with the fact that great coffee is for everyone, so we want to make it accessible and approachable. I doubt whether the new brand direction achieves all of that, but I do believe that good design plays an important role. The rest is up to our daily work. Authentic, communicative and creative… everyday :)
Tell us about the bag itself in terms of notable (manufacturing, sizes, materials) features?
The bag system is as follows. We have three sizes, small with a capacity of up to 250g, medium which is our 1kg bag and then a large bag for wholesale that holds 4.5kgs. The 1kg bag has two colour ways, one for blends and the other for microlot coffees. The 250g bag has ten colour ways - one for blends, five for microlots and and four for special releases.
The bag is fully recyclable. This was actually a big decision that required loads of research. Compostable is available, however the quality isn’t great when you consider how sensitive coffee is to oxygen and light. In South Africa, which is our primary market, composting centres are not the norm yet and if a compostable product ends up in a batch of plastic bound for recycling, it can contaminate the whole batch, sending it to a landfill. With the information I had available to me, recyclable materials are still better in the SA market.
The bags are fully printed except of the individual coffee information, which we print on a label, in-house. This allows us to print on demand, eliminating waste and speeding up production. It also speeds up our turnaround time on releasing new coffees.
You recently did a tour to Europe and some incredible cafe partners, are you happy with how the packaging held up against international brands? Who are your favourites around the world, the ones that keep you inspired and determined to keep pushing.
We are fortunate to have shipped coffee to over 50 countries now. Many home users but also a growing number of cafe’s who feature us regularly. I spent some time with Rosslyn, Batch Baby, Formative and IKAWA in London, Sweet Spot Kaffee in Munich, Five Elephant in Berlin and Motors in Paris. It was great to meet their customers and talk about our brand, coffees and ideas while brewing some tasty cups. The feedback on the bags was great so job done, for now… Luhle is currently in Mauritius working with our customers there and hosting a few pop-ups. Katie and I will be back in Europe in August to support our growing network of customers. I find travel inspirational and the ultimate reset. Visiting wine bars, retail stores, restaurants, hotels and soaking in the inspiration that surrounds us in and out of the coffee industry. Brands I find inspiring are broad and abundant but here are a few I think of often Nike, Vans, Former, Balter Beer, Onyx Coffee Lab, Friedhats, Tim Wendelboe, Victorinox, Stanley and Gozney. People are awesome and inspiration is everywhere, if we are looking for it.
We have just returned from Dubai and the packaging game there is strong. You’ve never let being on the Southern tip of Africa hold back your ideas, what do you think that we as South African coffee brands can bring to the global market?
My grandfather was a prisoner of war in SA. His wife, my Nonna, was sent over by ship from Sicily for them to be married - an arranged marriage. They were hard working and decided to stay in SA because they saw an opportunity to own a business. They did that, and my parents did the same. Entrepreneurship is in my blood and I choose to stay in SA because I love our country and I love the life my kids have here. I am grateful to be alive at this moment in time where a business in Howick, KwaZulu-Natal can compete with businesses in Paris, New York and London. I have and I continue to wok hard to make that a reality and I guess that is what South Africans offer the world - gees! Hard work wins and I, like many South Africans, don’t shy away from it. From a coffee business perspective, the reality is that we as a country are not bringing innovation to the world, we are learning from those ahead of us and we are trying to compete at their game, but in our way.
The new look didn’t stop at your packaging, your world class coffee bar also got a delightful refresh. How have you found the experience of having a full time cafe?
I swore I’d never open a cafe but we have done it in a manageable way. It is inside our HQ, run by a small team, no kitchen and a very strong focus on serving great microlots and competition style coffees in the way we like to drink them. The cafe is looking lovely and I love being a customer in it. We also added a banana tree to the space and it has shot up to around 4.5m tall - his name is Brian.
