Grounded Coffee
THE OWNER/DIRECTOR
Ricky Pene, from Kauwhata marae (Ngati Kauwhata) and with Italian heritage (his Great Great Grandfather was an Italian with the family name Scia Scia) was born and bred in Feilding and has lived in Palmerston North for 20 years. He is the owner of Grounded Coffee cafè and Director of Fat Daddys Ltd. Ricky has also been a board member of the Manawatu Jets Basketball team, and is involved in several Manawatu community activities.
THE BUSINESS
In April, 2006 Ricky purchased Grounded Coffee cafè on George Street in Palmerston North. Seventy percent of the business involves supplying the domestic market (people with coffee machines and plungers at home) with freshly roasted and local coffee beans. A new initiative is the café/espresso bar where freshly made coffee and food (some of which is made on the premises) are available for customers to enjoy on site. Ricky also promotes local painters and photographers by displaying their work (for sale) on the walls of the espresso bar.
TE KAKANO (THE SEED)
Ricky’s mother passed away in 2005, and recently celebrated his sons first birthday. In the words of Ricky ‘70% of my reason for getting into business is because of my family’. For Ricky, the business provided him with an opportunity to fulfil the potential others (including his mother) had seen in him. Ricky was also made redundant after 6 years as national Sales Manager for a Manawatu-based business known as Perception Kayaks. The redundancy came as a shock to Ricky, but he felt it was a sign of the times, and reconsidered his career and life goals as a result:
“I had to make a decision. I had just turned 40, and my first child turned one recently. I thought ‘do I keep involved in that sort of role [Sales Manager]?’ which meant I’d have to move to Wellington or Auckland. I had offers to take on brand management positions which meant more pay but also more stress … but I wanted to bring my son up in Palmerston North.”
As a self-confessed ‘coffee nut’ and ‘creature of habit’ Ricky had acquired a taste for well-brewed coffee, and had regular café haunts he visited around New Zealand as a travelling Sales Manager. He even contemplated creating a ‘sales representatives guide to good coffee’. Once the shock of being made redundant subsided, Ricky started to investigate setting up a coffee cart business. In his words he thought this would be a great way to ‘set something up for myself and get a feel for small business’.
As fate would have it, he approached Grounded Coffee cafè to measure up their commercial coffee machine, and started talking to the owner about his passion for coffee and for the coffee business. The then owner of Ebony Coffee was also passionate about creating a niche (i.e., quality fresh roasted coffee beans for the local market) and this resonated with Ricky’s vision:
“He would talk about it [his business] and just ‘go off’ and I thought ‘hey … I’m not the only one who thinks like that’. I met with him over the next two weeks, and he suggested I buy the retail business off him.”
