Moak at Talbot & Bons

The owner of Moak coffee, the Modica-based producer that is currently in the top 20 in Italy, considers Malta more of a holiday destination than a place where business has to be conducted with strict formality.

One of the main differentiators of Moak is the passion with which the owners tackle the business

Alessandro Spadola, son of the founder, Giovanni, who set up the company 45 years ago, has spent his entire life in the coffee business.

The company is family-owned and, along with his father there is also his sister, Annalisa, who heads the company’s marketing and communications operations.

Being a family business enables Moak to take a long-term view of the market, with a focus on quality, and has enabled it to differentiate itself from the 800-odd producers of coffee in Italy through its state-of-the-art production facilities, its avant-garde branding and a keen eye for detail at every stage of the process.

“Our aim is to bring to the final client at Talbot & Bons the perfect espresso and cappuccino, implementing a strategy that ensures the highest quality in terms of the coffee blends on offer and all that goes with it,” Spadola said.

He sees Talbot & Bons, with its unique story, as an ideal fit with Moak’s business philosophy. At Talbot & Bons, apart from decaf, Moak offers different blends according to the time of day, with the blend offered in the morning being slightly more full-bodied and stronger than that offered in the after-noon and evening, which is lighter and has a lower caffeine content.

“In the evening we serve the Aromatic, a 100 per cent Arabica blend; the other blend is 75 per cent Arabica and 25 per cent Robusta,” Spadola explained. “We have to make a very big distinction because the man in the street, our final client, associates Arabica coffee with a high- quality product and the Robusta with an inferior product.

Preparing blends of Arabica and Robusta using high-quality coffee beans, both Arabica and Robusta, enables Moak to obtain blends that are an ideal combination: full-bodied while sweet to taste.

Spadola is highly upbeat about the prospects for growth of the market in Malta. With a population that is comparable to that of the province of Ragusa, where Moak is located, there is a significant addition from tourism for six months of the year.

He recalled that, when he came here only as a tourist some 20 years ago, the coffee sold in Malta was of the lowest quality in all the establishments, even those offering Italian-type coffee. “The competition offered a very low-quality coffee. When we decided to enter the Maltese market we started to offer products that went against this trend and were of a higher quality”.

“Today, two-and-a-half years after having created a small network, we are making good progress in Malta and are receiving positive feedback. It is all due to our capability as a company and our clients to collaborate on an educational level.

Although the world has been going through a financial crisis since 2008, Spadola points out that in the past five years Moak has made heavy investment throughout the company. It acquired new premises in Modica over an 11,000-square-metre site designed specifically to produce coffee using a highly innovative process.

One of the main differentiators of Moak from the competition is the passion with which the owners tackle the business. The company, along with its 100 staff, constantly looks ahead to anticipate possible future evolution in the market, and how it can enhance the services it offers and the company’s image.