Jeremy Regan, Head of Coffee at Jahnus, exclusive coffee roaster for Foodco
On learning, inspiring, and building effective relationships.
QSR Media: What makes you excited about your position?
Jeremy Regan: Learning – you are always learning in the café and coffee industry, and my position allows me to meet with customers, franchisees, suppliers and other industry peers who you can always learn from. My position also allows me to taste a lot of different coffees so I can ensure the coffee served in Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue is spot-on – tasting new coffees always excites me! People often comment “so your job is to taste coffee? I’d love that job!” and that reminds me how much I enjoy my work.
QSR Media: What are your key business philosophies?
Regan: Treat people how you would like to be treated, always put yourself in the other persons shoes and love what you do – simple philosophies that have worked well for me so far! Working in the franchise sector it’s important to have effective relationships with your franchise partners and these philosophies have helped establish and maintain those relationships.
QSR Media: What three goals are you focused on?
Regan: Customer satisfaction – both franchisees who buy the roasted beans and our customers who buy the finished coffees, they both need to be satisfied with the coffee
Training – making sure we are giving our new and existing franchisees the right training and training tools to execute great coffee
Inspiring – a significant part of my role is to be a coffee ambassador and remind everyone what a great product coffee is and how much it contributes to our Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue brands. So much effort goes into a coffee bean from the time a coffee tree seedling is planted to when the roasted bean is put into the grinder to make that flat white – if I can instil passion for the product in Foodco staff, the brands’ franchisees and their staff and also customers then they will ensure each coffee is perfect and enjoy the experience of drinking a great coffee even more!
QSR Media: What long-term changes are you planning on?
Regan: Muffin Break and Jamaica Blue are established franchise brands with loyal customers but long term we must also remain relevant – change is key to this whether it be embracing new equipment, new procedures or introducing new products.
QSR Media: What previous positions have prepared you for this one and how?
Regan: I have been with Foodco since 2000 and was seconded to the UK in 2003 to assist with establishing the Muffin Break brand there – working in a small team of 2 that gradually grew with store numbers ensures you experience the roles of every department and have a very well rounded understanding of the business! In Australia we had each department as a resource, then moving to UK and effectively being all of those departments was a great learning experience. This combined with my many years of experience making, tasting and judging coffees definitely prepared me for this role.
