CAFE BANKS ON BEANS
GOOD Morning Coffee Trader’s newly opened store has already earned a loyal following with plans for further expansion already in the works.
The business which specialises in coffee as well as serving food and having a drive- through facility recently opened in the mothballed ANZ bank building at 195 Charters Towers Rd in Hyde Park.
It follows Good Morning Coffee Trader opening their first coffee drive- through in Ingham Rd, Garbutt while they also have a store in Castletown.
They now employ 50 people across the three stores and have plans to expand further.
Good Morning Coffee Trader coowners Stuart Cocker and Scott McInerney said they had been thrilled with the popularity of the new store.
“Everyone loves what we’ve done with the building … we call it industrial chic and it’s eclectic,” they said.
“We wanted to try and keep the exterior very much the same so that when you walk through the door you get the wow factor of the change as far as it no longer resembles the old bank but a lot of the old bank features have been used.”
Turning the abandoned bank building into a thriving coffee shop wasn’t without it’s challenges.
The walls were made of Gyprock and steel and were quite literally bullet proof while they soon discovered the glass that had to be removed was three inches thick.
More than six tonnes of concrete also had to be removed by hand.
However the exterior, which still resembles a bank mixed with a trendy new fit- out inside has created a unique coffee experience in Townsville.
Telltale signs of the bank still remain such as the vault which is now filled with coffee beans while offices inside the bank have been converted to meeting rooms for customers which can be hired.
Mr Cocker and Mr McInerney said serving good coffee and food and ensuring they cater to the local market had helped them to achieve success where other businesses had failed.
“There is a lot of positives in Townsville and I think we dwell too much on the negatives,” they said.
“North Queensland is a unique place to be and we are locals so we definitely identify with the local market and if you’re going to survive in Townsville you really have to do that.
“Townsville is very loyal to their locals and Townsville has been very good to us.”