Aldi coffee Lazzio sees 50 per cent sales spike during coronavirus panic buying

Forget toilet paper, pasta and long life milk, supermarkets saw demand for this item more than double – and we’re still snapping it up.

While toilet paper made the most headlines when supermarket panic buying began there was another more unexpected household item that saw a spike in sales.

In Aldi, sales of its coffee brand Lazzio spike by more than 50 per cent during a seven week period across March and April.

The Aldi brand is supplied by Victorian coffee company Black Bag Roasters, which is part of the Nomad Coffee Group.

CEO Craig Dickson put the sales increase down to people simply making their morning coffee at home rather than buying one on their work commute.

When coronavirus cases started appearing across Australia in early March, Mr Dickson told news.com.au that he was immediately worried about the impact the pandemic would have on his business, as it supplies coffee beans to cafes and restaurants.

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Coronavirus panic buying in March saw demand for items like toilet paper spike, but shoppers also bought up big in coffee. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“We certainly were (concerned), I think we had our first emergency meeting on around the 12th of March where we started taking corrective action,” he said.

“We started getting people focused on other things in our business pretty quickly.”

The company switched its focus to online sales, as well as the sudden increase in demand for coffee from Aldi which coincided with millions of Australians now working from home.

Employees from Nomad Group’s customer service and sales teams were suddenly working in the warehouse to help pack and make coffee for Aldi.

Black Bag Roasters CEO Craig Dickson.

“Our traditional business declined but Aldi sales were up more than 50 per cent for probably a six to seven week period,” Mr Dickson said.

“It was pretty crazy, the orders that were starting to come in were pretty much emptying the warehouse and we were roasting pretty much every hour we were allowed to and packing to keep up with the demand of Aldi.”

The pace of demand was gruelling, however, Mr Dickson said it saved many jobs that would otherwise have been cut as the company would have been at a “significant loss”.

While casual staff had to be let go all 75 of the coffee company’s full time staff were able to stay employed.

The demand from Aldi saved the company from significant losses.

“Probably the most important thing it did was it kept our production busy, kept our production pretty full which enabled us to keep all our (full time) staff on board during that time,” Mr Dickson said.

“If it wasn’t for having the partnership with Aldi we probably would have had to stand down some staff. So to be able to go through that time and not do that was fantastic.”

While business is returning to normal as social distancing restrictions are eased across the country, Mr Dickson said the coronavirus pandemic will forever change how the business operates.

He believes demand for at home coffee will continue, as more people work from home.

“I think just in general more people will work from home than they have in the past which I think is a real positive,” he said.

Other supermarkets and coffee companies have also reported an increase in sales during the initial lockdown stages.

Rolando Schirato, Managing Director for Vittoria Coffee, told news.com.au it had experienced a drop in takeaway coffee sales but a spike in the use of home based products such as pods.

“The takeaway coffee market has kept coffee sales alive and it has been amazing to see the dedication and innovation from so many of our customers on a number of different levels,” he said.

“However the drop in out of home coffee consumption depending on the channel ranges in the vicinity of 50-90%. In home consumption is therefore on the rise with the coffee capsule category seeing the most significant growth.”

Coffee pods proved very popular, with the total capsule market growing by 56% according to Nielsen Scan Data in the 4 weeks to 05/04/20.

Nespresso have also adapted to the recent change in climate, with the brand’s Australia General Manager, Jean Marc Dragoli telling news.com.au coffee consumption was up because it adds “a sense of normalcy and ritual”.

Sales of coffee pods have soared recently. Picture: Instagram / Nespresso

In April, Coles also revealed sales of coffee pods had skyrocketed during isolation.