New Zealand’s pre-eminent coffee brand is finding its Mojo again after 5 years of difficult economic conditions. We caught up with John Holloway, CEO of Mojo, on his journey with Mojo and how the business has survived and is now poised to thrive after Covid, Inflation and the changing dynamics of the workforce.

Founded as a boutique roastery café in Wellington by Steve and Julie Gianoutsos in 2003, Mojo Coffee is now one of New Zealand’s most experienced independent coffee roasters and café operators. Starting from humble beginnings on Wakefield Street, Wellington they’ve grown like a family, working with passionate individuals along the way.

Mojo started its journey back in 2003, founded by Steve and Julie Gianoutsos. Steve was big in the hospitality scene but decided that traditional cafes and kitchens weren't for him, so had a crack at coffee instead. The first Mojo espresso bar opened on the corner of Wakefield and Taranaki Streets and started serving its signature Flat White Blend - Dr Mojo’s Medicine - which is now our Classic Mojo. Steve mastered the blend in just 2 days and has stood the test of time.

Over the next 6-12 months, Steve steadily grew the business, bringing on some fantastic team members who are still with the business today. The GFC of 2008 presented a slight hiccough as capital began to dry up, however this is where I (John) entered the scene. I was his day one customer (and coincidentally have the #1 Loyalty Card). I became friends with Steve and then eventually joined him and Michael Bale to form the first Board for Mojo. Thankfully we got through the GFC reasonably unscathed.

Coffee is a funny thing in that it has to be a balance between cheap enough to justify, but nice enough to feel like a treat. Even in economic downturns - like we're having now - a good coffee is something that people still justify - similar to chocolate. We were soon joined by Katie Ellis who was a real game-changer. She could take Steve's ideas and workflow them into successful outcomes. By 2012, Mojo had grown to include 2 cafes in Auckland and about 11 in Wellington. International expansion to Tokyo and Chicago quickly followed.

In 2015, I officially joined the business. Steve needed help with business plans and raising capital for expansion.  Steve has always been a visionary leader and was something of a pioneer with placing proper coffee shops into foyers of large office towers - something which he introduced to Japan and the USA also. This was a foreign concept for Chicago landlords and office workers but one that they quickly grasped. Within 6 months, they stopped asking for takeaways to eat at their desks and shifted to sitting and spending time in the quality fitouts that Mojo is known for. Mojo had planned to expand to 25 cafes in the USA by 2025, and so we set about raising more capital. New Zealand was sitting on a comfortable 40 or so Mojo cafes.

During this time I convinced Steve about the potential wholesale market. It was an untouched aspect of the business, and he gave me free reign to pursue it, so I started pushing that and hired sales people in Auckland and Christchurch, and by 2020 around 58% of our coffee consumption was through external customers. All was looking good, until the pandemic hit. I won't linger too long on COVID-19, but it had a profound effect on our business. It stopped our expansions, closed 15 of our New Zealand cafes, wrote off assets from the balance sheet and we split off the international stores into stand-alone, separately owned entities that now have nothing to do with the NZ business.

It was a rough time but by 2022 we had a clear runway for survival - we just needed to find our mojo again. We had to adapt to the significant change in foot-traffic, as New Zealand founds its feet amid the balance of work in the office / work from home scenario’s. We ran a strategy session and decided to diversify the business even more into the wholesale model. We bought additional roasters, and had some additional brands join the Mojo Group including Emporio in Wellington, Prima in Christchurch and Kōkako from Auckland. Kōkako is the most respected Certified Fair Trade Organic coffee roaster in New Zealand and is a phenomenal brand which we are excited to support in its growth.

We're committed to our customers - especially our loyal ones and provide them with a 10% discount on all hot drinks by downloading our Mojo Loyalty App. Yes, the cost of coffee is increasing globally - mostly held up by bean traders - but we won't pass this onto our customers as we serve them multiple coffees a day. Our secret to enduring success is our commitment to our people - we have the largest training regime for baristas in New Zealand and offer career pathways from floor staff through to management - in fact over 11 different roles you can progress through. We see coffee as a craft that takes time, skill and patience to master and we guide hundreds of people through the process each and every year. We are also very proud that our own Max Cui is the current NZ Barista Champion for 2024, and heading to Globals. We’re also very proud to have staff at Mojo who have been with us for over 20 years.

Going forward, our focus is consistency and on continuing to deliver excellence as we see people returning to the city. Working with businesses nationwide, we're starting to roll out in-house coffee solutions including machines and offering an experience that is in-line with what you'd expect in our cafes - from the flavour to the volume of coffee in the cup! We're seeing more opportunities to get our coffee into the hands of consumers - whether it's in corporate office environments, beans for at home, or cold-brew solutions for on the go. We'd love to chat to other businesses to see how we could help them.

‍

‍