The Heart & Soul of Coffee with Soul Origin

With well over 100 stores around Australia, Soul Origin places huge importance on the quality, consistency, and reliability it offers to customers.

“No matter whether they’re in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, or Brisbane, our customers can expect the same tasting coffee and cold beverages from every Soul Origin store,” says Sam Taylor, National Manager – Training and Coffee for Soul Origin.

Sam’s role at Soul Origin includes quality assurance, training and mentoring the current coffee team as well as the next generation of Soul Origins baristas. Additionally, he oversees the future growth of the brand in the coffee and beverage space.

Sam says alongside consistency from store to store, partnering with Lactalis Foodservice provides a number of benefits to the coffee chain.

“Traditional dairy milk is still by far the most popular way people drink their daily coffee, which is why it’s important to partner with someone like Lactalis Foodservice for consistency across the country.”

Soul Origin has used the Lactalis Foodservice milk range in Queensland locations for six years and rolled out the dairy products nationally in 2018. These include Pauls Professional Full Cream, Trim, and lactose-free Zymil milks, as well as Pauls Professional Pure Cream with cold drinks.

“Dairy is an interesting space these days, with options like the light milk and lactose-free becoming more prevalent and asked for in the last few years,” Sam says.

“It has a great quality with a delicate flavour that suits our coffee really well. For us, it’s all about the flavour profile and the way the dairy products pair with our other ingredients,” he says.

“Lactalis Foodservice also has reps on the ground in all the areas where we have stores, and we have good lines of communication with them. Not only is it about quality and consistency, but there’s also an availability and communication that are key parts of the partnership to us.”

The quality and partnership with Lactalis Foodservice has encouraged Soul Origin to introduce other dairy products from the company to the food side of the business, such as Lemnos haloumi and feta cheese.

Like most hospitality and coffee businesses, COVID-19 posed a challenge to Soul Origin, however, Sam says it was one it could overcome.

“A lot of our stores were able to stay open throughout COVID, and that quality, consistency, and reliability meant that customers could continue to come in and get their daily coffee form us,” Sam says.

“Our cafés were like a ‘bright light’ to a lot of people throughout COVID, particularly with a number of our stores located near supermarkets. We were still able to be there for customers to rely on when they were in lockdown but going out for the essentials. And of course, everyone knows that coffee is essential.”

These values helped Soul Origin work through the worst of COVID-19 and will see it grow into the future.

“It’s important for us to partner with brands trying to support Australian businesses and farmers,” Sam says.

“COVID has highlighted the importance of supporting local and increased people’s desire to do so. Through partnership with a company like Lactalis Foodservice, that’s what we’re able to do across Australia.”