The Story
Industry Beans was founded by brothers Trevor and Steve Simmons, with the vision to create a truly immersive coffee and hospitality experience, opening the original Industry Beans in Fitzroy in 2013 - a coffee roastery, cafe and brew bar all under one roof. Before launching Industry Beans, the brothers opened Penny Farthing Espresso on High Street, Northcote, in early 2010 , starting their coffee journey during Melbourne’s emerging specialty coffee scene. That same year they started producing their own coffee, labelled Industry Beans, at a roastery in Fitzroy North, loading 60-kilo bags of beans into the ute from a garage in Brunswick, taking them to Fitzroy North to roast and pack, then stacking them on the shelves at Penny Farthing.
After ten years, Industry Beans has grown into Australia’s largest independent specialty coffee roaster, with seven venues across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The company has achieved significant milestones, including becoming the coffee partner for the MCG, serving roughly 20,000 cups of coffee a week and close to a million cups a year across its 35 outlets on match days.
The business is structured as “a business of thirds” - retail cafes, wholesale, and e-commerce operations - which helped them navigate COVID-19 successfully, entering with 130 staff and emerging with 210.
Sourcing & Relationships
Openness defines Industry Beans, from sourcing beans to brewing coffee to customer interactions, with clarity as key. While specific details about their direct sourcing partnerships weren’t found in the search results, the company appears to work through established import channels with a focus on transparency and traceability. Their sourcing spans multiple origins including Kenya (Kieni washing station), Papua New Guinea (Okalu village), Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, with emphasis on working with cooperatives and supporting infrastructure development for farmers.
The company demonstrates commitment to seasonal sourcing and relationship-building. Their Summer Espresso blend features Azacaunes El Salvador for white chocolate sweetness and Limu Ethiopia for bright berry and citrus notes with honey sweetness, sourced specifically for this blend.
They work with initiatives like Lass Malo Coffee in Papua New Guinea, supporting infrastructure and quality training to help farmers produce outstanding coffee. This approach reflects industry best practices of supporting farming communities through technical assistance and premium pricing for quality.
Roasting Philosophy
Industry Beans operates multiple roasteries with consistency as a core principle. They use Loring roasters across all venues to maintain consistency, replacing earlier Probat equipment, with the Loring producing outstanding clean, evenly roasted coffee that streamlines production across all three roasting venues.
Their approach combines science and technology with human expertise, implementing robust quality control processes including assessment cuppings, describing it as “a combination of science and art” with significant human input for taste evaluation and profile development.
Every three months, Industry Beans creates two unique blends that capture the feeling of the season: a Seasonal Espresso and a Seasonal Filter, sourced and roasted to reflect the brightness, balance and character of each season.
Their signature Fitzroy Street Blend balances bright acidity and dried fruit sweetness with tasting notes of blackcurrant, blood orange and chocolate, designed as an all-rounder that brews beautifully black or with milk, resulting in a juicy yet rich espresso when properly extracted. Their roasting style emphasizes approachability and versatility across brewing methods.
What to Try
Industry Beans offers four main espresso blends: Fitzroy Street (their signature house blend with blackcurrant, blood orange, and chocolate notes), Rose Street (chocolatey with toffee, red cherry, and cocoa butter), Newstead (elegant fruit sweetness with blueberry, cacao, and hazelnut), and All Time Espresso (their most developed blend with chocolate, fruitcake, and brown sugar).
Their current Seasonal Espresso showcases citrus brightness with a sweet, syrupy body - bright with abundant citrus and berry notes as black coffee, while with milk it develops greater chocolate richness with delicate berry notes in the background.
For filter brewing, try their Seasonal Filter blend, which bursts with summer fruits, balanced citric acidity, and sweet aftertaste - vibrant and fruit-driven as black filter coffee with a milk chocolate finish, becoming soft and delicate when paired with milk.
The current Summer Filter combines Papua New Guinea Barioda for bright, juicy fruit flavours with El Mirador Peru for additional body and roundness. Beyond coffee, Industry Beans has embraced innovation with products like cold brew concentrate and coffee capsules, while maintaining their core focus on seasonal, transparently sourced coffee that reflects their commitment to both quality and community engagement.