ABOUT US

Proud to be a family run business in Hawkes Bay..

Empire Coffee Roasters was established in late 2016 by good friends Ethan and Michael.

It had been the dream of Ethan’s to establish a coffee roasting company, and produce good honest coffee for the Hawkes Bay community, while supplying other establishments across the country. After a few good local craft beers, and plenty of conversation, Michael was on board with the dream and Empire Coffee Roasters was born.

Originally started solely as a wholesale business inside a furniture department store in Napier, Empire moved to its current premises in 2018 where Ethan and Michael established a large cafe in the Pirimai Plaza precinct, opening its doors to the public in September of 2018.

Since then, many things have changed. In 2019 Michael departed from Empire, beginning a new adventure in his life, and Ethan and his wife Shontelle’s first daughter, Octavia, was born. If all this didn’t make life busy enough, 2020 come around bringing with it a global pandemic, and we all know how that went. Adding to it, Ethan and Shontelle had their second daughter, Macy, in 2021.

Today, Ethan along with mum Kathleen still operate Empire Coffee Roasters from the Pirimai Plaza Precinct, however having pivoted the customer facing side of the business into a smaller coffee bar and operational space, serving coffee and fresh pastries. The space also includes a fantastic range of local and NZ made products, working on the ethos of small businesses working together to build each other up.

We never truely know what the next chapter will look like, but we do know that good coffee and great people will always be part of that journey.