Female-run Floozy Coffee Roasters aims to advance women in coffee industry and beyond

Two women who run a coffee roasting business are not only changing the face of the coffee industry but also supporting women in need.

Kristy Mujana (aka Kmac) and Priscilla Fisher (aka Cill) run women-led business Floozy Coffee Roasters based in Newcastle, New South Wales.

When the duo met over a cup of coffee in 2016, they got talking about their shared passion and decided to go into business together.

By July 2017, they opened Floozy Coffee Roasters – a cheeky brand with a good heart.

“We are committed to sourcing high-quality, sustainable coffee from small lots. We also keep an interesting rotation of single origin offerings,” Fisher said.

“We’re all about showcasing the talents of the ladies in our industry and training up future generations of badass coffee chicks.”

If you love girl power, then you’ll love Floozy.

The pair are passionate about helping women in need and support The Rough Period, a non-for profit that assists women sleeping rough by providing them with essential sanitary and toiletry items.

Floozy Coffee Roasters donate $1 from every wholesale kilogram and 5% from retail sales to The Rough Period.

“We believe that girls should support other girls,” Fisher said.

“We wanted to support a cause and have a social responsibility aspect to our business, so agreed we would support The Rough Period from the beginning.”

In addition to helping women in the community, Fisher said their goal was to promote and advance women in the coffee industry.

“It’s very noticeably a male-dominated industry. For example, barista leagues are often not won by women, and traditionally a lot of coffee production is male-dominated. Women have often been overlooked at every step in the supply chain when it comes to coffee,” Fisher said.

“Our experience was that there were very few women in coffee roasting. It was very intentional, from the beginning, that we wanted to be a women-led business.”

And the response has been well-received.

“At first, we thought only women would get behind the business, but we have found that, overwhelmingly, men have supported us and are keen to support women in the industry,” Fisher said.

Fisher said Floozy Coffee Roasters was simply an example of trying to make the coffee industry more equal.

“As far as where we sit, we don’t discriminate against men. We just happen to be two chicks working together to lift the profile of women in our industry,” she said.

The pair work as a good team, each bringing different skills to the business. Mujana is a hospitality veteran, former cafe owner and all-round coffee whiz, while Fisher has a background in economics and takes care of the financial, marketing and customer service aspects of the business.

The story behind the brand name is a rather eccentric one – the women Googled bad words to describe women, wrote them all out and chose one.

Floozy has now evolved into a fun and playful word for the business, rather than its typically negative connotation, explains Fisher.

“We often have people come up to us and say ‘Hey Floozies!’ and we have a good laugh,” she said.

“We also didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously. We’re just making coffee fun.”

Floozy coffee is available to cafes and restaurants via wholesale and to the public via retail. For further information, visit https://www.floozycoffee.com/