Empire Coffee Roasters

Here at The Coffee Collective, we are excited to bring you a wonderful selection of coffee from Empire Coffee Roasters. Including Blends, Single Origin and Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffees. Their coffee is now also available in pods for your home or office capsule coffee makers.

Based in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, get to know Empire Coffee Roasters below.

About Empire Coffee Roasters

The story of Empire Coffee Roasters dates back to late 2016 when it was founded by good friends, Ethan and Michael. Like every good story, it started over a few local craft beers and the idea shortly became a reality.

It had been the dream of Ethan’s to establish a coffee roasting company, and produce good honest coffee for the Hawkes Bay community, while supplying other establishments across the country.

Originally started solely as a wholesale business inside a furniture department store in Napier, Empire moved to its current premises in 2018 where Ethan and Michael established a large cafe in the Pirimai Plaza precinct, opening its doors to the public in September of 2018.

Since then, many things have changed. In 2019 Michael departed from Empire, beginning a new adventure in his life, and Ethan and his wife Shontelle’s first daughter, Octavia, was born. If all this didn’t make life busy enough, 2020 come around bringing with it a global pandemic, and we all know how that went. Adding to it, Ethan and Shontelle had their second daughter, Macy, in 2021.

Today, Ethan along with mum Kathleen still operate Empire Coffee Roasters from the Pirimai Plaza Precinct, however having pivoted the customer facing side of the business into a smaller coffee bar and operational space, serving coffee and fresh pastries. The space also includes a fantastic range of local and NZ made products, working on the ethos of small businesses working together to build each other up.

View their story online - Click here