As companies increasingly push their employees to return to the office, attention is turning away from mandates, to the working environment they can offer staff.
Matt Angus, Head of B2B at Nespresso, talks to Sean Aylmer about the expectations of the office - and of course the role of coffee in creating a productive environment.
Nespresso is a supporter of Fear & Greed
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business Interview. I'm Sean Aylmer. As companies increasingly push their employees to return to the office, attention is turning away from mandates to the working environment they can offer staff, which leads us very neatly to today's interview. Matt Angus is the head of B to B at an Espresso, which is a great supporter of this podcast. He joins me in the studio. Matt, welcome to Hear and Greed.
Thank you great to be here.
How much has the workplace changed because of the pandemic in your view, Yeah.
Look, I think the workplaces and look it's changed a lot. You know, it seems like such a long time ago, but it was probably only five or six years ago, or is only five or six years ago. It's gone from this environment where I do my work in the office, and that is where I do my work, to this environment where I think the office is an opportunity to collaborate, to bond, to work together, but also balance that with working from home and ensuring that you've people have the right balance between working from home and working from the office.
We're here in Sydney. What amazes me when I'm heading home and I'm going through this Sydney CBD, just how busy it is Monday night, Tuesday night, Wednesday night at six o'clock o'clock people are everywhere. It does seem that even though we have a kind of hybrid policy, there are a lot of people around the workplace at the moment.
Yeah, yeah, there is. Look, we're continuing to see a small uptick in occupancy year on year. I think it's still down on COVID, probably twenty to twenty five percent down on COVID. But when you look at yeah and year and I talk to some of the customers that we work with, they are seeing an uptick in office occupancy and their staff coming in, which I think is really great. I think it's a reflection that people are finding that balance between the benefits that come from working in the office and the benefits that come from working from home.
So that's sort of segues nicely into espresso. Probably you're head of B to B, your job is all about talking to big businesses or businesses, including big businesses, to say what you need to keep your people happy. Is that how it goes?
Yeah, Yeah, that's certainly part of it. I think, Look, I lead a team of passionate people that have focused on really creating partnerships with the coffee solutions that we offer. And you're right, it's across workplace, it's across offices, it's across hotels and hospitality, and look, it's a wide variety of different offerings that we offer that catered to small business and large business. But I think ultimately what we're about is trying to create partnerships with our customers and work with them on a coffee solution that can, to your point, help drive that right culture and get people back into the office.
How much has expectations changed in the last couple of years, and this obviously works into having the right environment, which may or may not include coffee obviously, how much has it changed.
The expectations on the office?
Yeah?
Yeah, Look, I think particularly when you talk to younger people and you read the wires and what younger people are looking for, the expectations continue to grow, and I think, you know, some of the fundamentals are still there. For me, an office needs to be a safe environment, not only physically safe, but I think emotionally safe, and people feel like they've got the opposity to turn up and be their authentic selves. I think people are looking for an office that they can thrive. I don't know anyone that's not motivated and not excited by growing, learning and developing when they're in the right environment. So I think that's that's important. I think people also want to be in an office where they're part of something bigger. There's a sense of there's a sense of purpose that they're there. But I think also when people have this choice of should I go to the office, or do I need to go to the office or can I do that from home? You're right, the expectations of the office has grown and people are looking for an environment now where they can find the balance between working at a desk on their own, finding the right appropriate sized meeting room to have the appropriate meeting, but also space where people and teams can collaborate socialized brainstorm And I guess that's where a coffee can play really key role in helping to facilitate some of those conversations that are just not possible when you're doing it via Microsoft Teams or whatever connection platform you use.
It's kind of like the water cooler conversation. Yeah, it's probably more like a coffee machine conversation. Is that real?
Yeah, I think, you know, let's go and have a Coffee's a fairly common catchphrase that Australia and use, but I think genuinely in the workplace that can be a really important kickstart to conversations. I think it can get people away from their desk, get them having a brainstorm or collaborative type. I think, you know, let's sit down and have a coffee can also be an opportunity to break down some tension points or break down some barriers that might be between two people that are having a disagreement about something. And I touched earlier on the importance of mental health and well being in the workplace, and you know, we talk around some of those conversations are actually it's starting those conversations with someone that's going through a difficult period is the most difficult, either for the individual that's going through that challenge or someone that's looking from the outside going I can see there's something wrong there, and so let's sit down and chat over coffee can really help stimulate those conversations.
And presumably at the end of all this, because I mean, I know you did a research a couple of years ago you talk about mental health and culture. Presumably all of this, though, is about the end of the day. A business is there to make money. Yeah, and if you can actually have a better culture, if you're looking up to your people, et cetera, then you're going to do better. And that's kind of where you fit in.
Yeah, look, one hundred percent, that's where it comes from, this notion of partnership. Yeah, we're obviously in business to sell coffee without a doubt, but ultimately we're around creating partnerships with our customers to create that appropriate and that that correct environment. And you know, I can certainly reflect on times when I've been in cultures that weren't high performing, that weren't thriving, and it's and it's not a not a fun place to be. And I think, you know, there's differing views on mandate back to the office, but I think ultimately long term businesses need to be looking to create environments where people are motivated and by choice come to the office three or four days a week, as opposed to oh, well it's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I've got to be in the office because ultimately, I think in today's environment, that's not going to create a thriving workplace. Employees going to be disengaged and it spirals from there.
So you also mentioned that you deal with hotels. Yeah, now I can't. I mean, in my mind, I know exactly what you're talking about. What's happening in that sort of space.
Yeah, Look, I think hotels is an interesting it's an instant space. I think tourism has rebounded pretty well post COVID, and so hotels are thriving off the back of continued strong tourism. I think, not only within Australia, but also coming from overseas. I think we continue to see a trend of people looking to pay for premium, so four and five star hotels continue to grind develop, and I think there's also a mix coming through of hotels focused on business, but also hotels focused on leisure and creating those different environments. And again we've got a variety of different solutions that can cater to different coffee moments within a hotel.
I have to just go personal here, So what's the most popular coffee? Like we off air with discussing, I remember when you opened a store near where I live and actually bought the machine, and I love the fact that you got the big bag and you just looked fancy when you're walking out in the store of the whole bit.
So when it comes to when it comes to consumption in personal household, a pgo is certainly by fine a way. Our most popular variant is that the purple one. Yeah, the purple one. Yeah. I think one of the unique things around then, especially professional side of the business, is our capsules are unique in our machine, just specifically designed to work with those unique capsules. So probably the most popular variant would be Rostrato Intenso Australians, New Zealanders, whoever it is that's drinking our coffee, they love it. They love it strong, right, But that is one of the reasons why we created those unique capsules. It also ensures that from business perspective, they can control their infantry. It limits the opportunity for people to use those I guess work funded capsules outside of the workplace.
Very quickly before we go because we're out of time. Pricing and coffee, because we've done a few stories over the last year about the price of coffee going through the river. It's a global market, yeah, it's it's not specific to any particular organization. How do you manage that A great question.
Look, I think we look to optimize our supply chain as much as possible, and look, coffee prices are going up, so that is a that is a challenge. I think we make choice full decisions on what we do from a price and perspective, and I think anyone that wants to reach out and talk to us and look at the price for our capsules relative to what you can pay for a Barista capture, we'll see that you know that we're very competitively priced.
Fantastic, Matt, thank you for talking to Fear and Greed.
Fantastic. Thank you.
That was Matt Angers, head of B to B at an Espresso, a great supporter of this podcast. This is the Fear and Greed Business Interview. Join us every morning for the full episode of Fear and Greed Business news you can use I'm sham Enjoy your day.