Interview with David Makin of Axil Coffee Roasters

Axil Coffee Roasters are a coffee roastery and café chain based in Melbourne. Axil and Brewtech have been in partnership since Brewtech’s inception in 2015, but their storied history dates back decades. We sat down with owner Dave Makin to chat about coffee, meet-cutes and share-houses.

 
My name is David Makin. I'm the owner and founder of Axil Coffee Roasters. We’re a cafe and roastery brand throughout Melbourne.

How long have you been in the hospitality game?

This year marks 30 years me in the Melbourne hospitality industry. So, I came out of school and did a degree in hotel management, and to be honest, I made terrible coffee for a very long time It was only when I was about 25, I started working with someone that used to be a coffee roaster. We started tasting different coffees and really started to learn a little bit more about coffee. Hospitalities sort of been everything I've ever done.

On that note, how important is fostering a sense of family within the work that you're doing?

We have so many different facets of our business. We have our core team that's here at the offices and coffee roastery. We have a really strong sense of family. A lot of our staff have been here a long time. Our head roaster has been here 10 years now. My office staff have been here around seven and eight years. So yeah, there's a strong sense of family between us all. Also, we have nearly 180 staff now that work in all our cafes- they're a lot younger and more vibrant. There is a close sense of connection between them all as they socialise a lot together. And then of course, there's our wholesale accounts. We have such a good connection with them. We're all like-minded people that want to do business the same way.

Did I read that you met your partner within the hospitality industry? Is that right?

Yeah, Zoe and I started Axil together. So when we met, Zoe was a coffee roaster and I was a barista- or probably a sales rep you'd say. And so, I used to go to work every day and sell coffee, and she used to go to work every day and roast coffee. We’d just come home and say “This is crazy! You roast it, I sell it. We just need to do this for ourselves. So, let's get married and open a coffee roasting company!” We actually got married and opened Axil in the same year. When was that? 2011?

Well, congratulations on the 10 year anniversaries this year.

Yeah, it’s very exciting on both counts!

Can you tell me a little bit about your relationship with Brewtech?

Our relationship with Brewtech has been from pretty much the beginning when they started, but it probably goes back further than that. I know Craig from when he first moved to Australia. Craig, and I go back a long way. I think he moved to Australia in 2004. It’s literally coming up to 20 years that I've known Craig. We have a strong connection with Brewtech. That probably also comes from having a very strong relationship with La Marzocco. When I originally competed in the barista competitions, La Marzocco was the sponsored machine. We formed a very close relationship with the team from La Marzocco, and now that's extended with the team from Brewtech as well.

Can you tell me about your experience of having residencies at Collab?

Yeah, so we've taken residency in Collab, I think twice now, and it's great. It's a good experience to have our coffee in there. I think it's mutually beneficial for both our team as well as the Collab team to be able to have the coffee there for a whole month. I love meeting different people from the Kensington area who come in to Collab and have coffee. It's been a great experience when we've done it.

This might be sort of like picking your favourite child, but do you have a favourite cafe?

I don't particularly have a favourite. I do visit a couple more than others, and that's simply due to geography. Our coffee roaster is here in Hawthorn. I live just down the road in Kew. So the original store on Burwood road is probably the one I visit the most, simply because it's on the way to work. But yeah, it's not surprising to see me down in Chadstone on the weekends. I've got a young family, so we go down there. I'm in the city during the week for meetings, so I'll usually make the meetings at one of the stores in the city. So yeah, move around between them all and try and give them an equal amount of love.

That's very diplomatic of you. Are you doing anything this weekend?

My wife’s running the Melbourne Marathon on Sunday! 42 kilometres! We’ll go along and cheer from the sidelines and provide water and stuff.

So she's been training for some time?

Yes ages!

That’s awesome! Do you remember when you first met Craig?

It's so funny, you know that Craig's dad and my dad worked for the same company. So Craig's dad in England worked for a company and my dad here in Australia worked for the same company- that's how we met. So my family went to stay with Craig's family for a little while and then when Craig moved to Australia he lived in our family home with my mom, dad and I, he was literally like a little brother. We’d go out and party together and everything! He's a chef by trade so he helped me design some of my specialty drinks for the Barista Comp. So basically, I've known Craig literally since the first day that he arrived in the country.

That's quite a story! If another roaster was thinking about working with Brewtech, what would your advice to them be?

I mean it's been a good experience for us! If I were a new roaster and I was getting into the industry, I think that Brewtech is the right company to partner with. They've helped a lot of companies like Axil to grow from being really small to where they are today. Brewtech is going to be able to help other roasters avoid some of those common early on mistakes and help them to grow a little bit quicker.

What a wonderfully high compliment, Craig will be really stoked to hear that I'm sure! Thanks so for your time today.

Not a problem.