Smart50 rank: 50
Revenue: $2,564,188
Growth: 35.38%
Founders: Mark Pascoe, 42, Carmelina Pascoe, 39
Based: Victoria
Employees: 10
Industry: Property and business services
Website: www.mycoffeeshop.com.au
Mark and Carmelina Pascoe were in the coffee machine servicing business when they were offered the opportunity to distribute Jura coffee machines. Although it was a departure from the familiar, the couple saw it as a great chance to move forward.
Today, they service and distribute not only coffee machines but a host of coffee-related products and machine parts, via their website mycoffeeshop.com.au.
While the initial start-up threw up various obstacles, Mark says that the key to their success was self-belief.
"We learnt to believe in ourselves and to stick to our guns. My advice for others? Don't give in and follow the crowd just because everyone else is - don't become a sheep."
It was exactly this philosophy which saw the Pascoe's abandon the idea of discounting, despite many other businesses doing so, especially during the downturn.
"The public, and many businesses, assume that because you have something to sell that is available in stores you will do anything to get their business. They have been trained by retailers to ask for a discount and not take no for an answer," says Mark.
"Our business is service based. We offer premium customer service, back up and support, as well as in-house repair and service centres. We explain to potential clients that you can have service or a cheap price, but not both."
"Clients that buy from us choose to do so because we are specialists in what we do. We know the machines inside out. This allows us to offer a premium support package, which reduces the overall cost of ownership significantly as well as providing maximum reliability."
There have been times though, says Mark, that they questioned this path.
"Do we lose out to discounters (both in the retail and commercial environments)? Yes. There have been numerous times when we've questioned our path, particularly in the first three years. But we have stuck to our guns and are glad we did."
"We still lose sales to discounters occasionally, and sometimes an existing client will go to a discounter, however we have found that they always come back. We have also found that 95% of clients return for service and products, although there is no sales push to get them to do so."
As for the future, after recording $2.5 million in revenue in 2008-09 and 35% growth, Mark says they are set for expansion in the next 18 to 24 months.
"We'll require significant staff increases as our number of outlets grow, we'll be investing in training current staff as well as hiring new staff for those new outlets."
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