News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. Sydney, Australia 22 November 2010

 VIVO Café, one of Sydney’s most recognisable café brands has partnered with Australia’s fasted growing and award-winning coffee company, Di Bella Coffee. This will bring a new level of coffee decadence to Sydney’s CBD.

“This is a very calculated direction for VIVO,” says Angela Vithoulkas, CEO of VIVO. “It’s very important to be able to read the market and the mood of what is going on out there. We have always delivered on quality and taste but it’s very clear to me that the future of the market requires something more.”

For VIVO that meant months of searching for the perfect coffee partner that would allow them to give their customers an even better coffee experience. After toying with the idea of roasting their own coffee due to the lack of any suitable companies, Angela finally found Di Bella.

“I had read about Phil [Di Bella] in a lot of magazines, being prominent for his rise in business and his holistic approach to the coffee industry,” says Angela. “We knew that one of his blends had won the 2009/2010 Golden Bean Award, which is really amazing for a new company, and even more amazing for such a big company to focus on producing an award-winning roast.”

For VIVO the key aspect of any new partnership was that it had to be with a company that understood the product in a new way, could see where the market was going and could support VIVO in the next phase of their business journey.

“We knew one thing with utter clarity,” says Angela. “We had to change and move forward with our coffee.”

The decision for VIVO to partner with Di Bella was based as much on Di Bella’s approach to business and customers as it was about the quality of coffee that would be produced in the café.

“Di Bella Coffee is all about innovation, quality and constantly raising the bar in the industry,” says Phillip Di Bella. “Our strategy in Sydney is to align ourselves with likeminded people who genuinely want to make a difference and have an impact within the industry by producing high quality coffee in order to shift the benchmark in Sydney.”

“VIVO is a good fit for our brand because they have a very similar culture to Di Bella Coffee. They focus on quality, service and value for money. They are 100% committed to not only the evolution of their business but want to provide an educational experience for their clients. VIVO also are devoted to building a great working environment for their team.”

VIVO will be serving a version of Di Bella’s Gold Bean award-winning coffee, Ali Reserve, named after Phil’s son. The blend will be aged and almost uniquely designed specifically for VIVO customers to provide a coffee that, according to Angela, will blow her customers away.

“You can smell the chocolate and honeycomb undertones while the beans are grinding,” she says. “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a better coffee in the world, and I have travelled extensively.”

While that’s a big claim Angela’s reasons for searching for this partnership so carefully are solely based around her relationship with her customers.

“Sometimes you have to go back to the basics of your business and really focus on what you do best. For us that’s always been the coffee and we felt that we really needed to reassess what we were offering the market and kick it up a gear.”

By using the Di Bella blend VIVO is certainly not compromising on quality. The Ali Reserve is a premium coffee that will be delivered to VIVO customers without adding to the price of their daily cup.

“We have been brewing with the Ali Reserve for several weeks now and we have already noticed a significant positive effect in the business in terms of customer feedback and growth. We know this partnership is the right move for the business.”

About VIVO Café

VIVO is located in Sydney’s CBD. Sister and brother business partners, Angela and Con Vithoulkas know, after 26 years in the café industry, that they have created their finest work ever with the winning VIVO formula of sensational coffee, fabulous food and exceptional service.

The winner of 6 awards, including City of Sydney Business Award for Outstanding Café of the Year and Outstanding Business of the Year, VIVO Cafés can attribute their success to the drive and business acumen of Con and Angela, herself the winner of the Telstra New South Wales 2007 Women’s Business Owner and described by Madison Magazine as Australia’s “food guru”. Their continued dedication to providing excellence in coffee, service and food sees them brewing more coffees for Sydneysiders, Monday to Friday, than any other CBD outlet. And they intend to continue conquering the world, one coffee at a time!   

www.vivocafe.com.au

Media contact

For more information and interviews contact:

Karen Morris

Inscriptions Media

0408 559 400