Get to know Will and Tami Nguyen, Co-founders of Great Cherry.
Will and Tami Nguyen, originally from Vietnam and now living and working in Australia, are co-founders of Great Cherry; Australia's first champion of fine robusta coffee with a mission to create impactful change. On July 3rd 2023, we conducted an interview with them to learn more about Great Cherry, how it all began and where they plan to go next!
Will and Tami Nguyen, originally from Vietnam and now living and working in Australia, are co-founders of Great Cherry; Australia's first champion of fine robusta coffee with a mission to create impactful change. On July 3rd 2023, we conducted an interview with them to learn more about Great Cherry, how it all began and where they plan to go next!
Tell us a bit about Great Cherry, how it all began, and what you do?
[Will] - My name is Will Nguyen. I'm a cofounder of Great Cherry, with my wife Tami, we are originally from Vietnam. I came to Australia to do my Masters, and I’ve been involved in a wine company called Little Ripples. They are a socially responsible wine brand where for every bottle of wine we sell we provide one person with an entire year of clean drinking water. I was surprised at how a small contribution can make an enormous impact on developing communities where people don't have access to clean drinking water. Most of our projects are in India and Africa because we don’t really have this water issue in Vietnam. Tami and I wanted to do something to build a business that could give back to the Vietnamese community where we were born and raised.
Tami is a barista in Sydney and when she spoke with her barista colleagues and cafe owners about Vietnamese robusta coffee, she found that nobody really liked Vietnamese coffee. We were surprised because we love Vietnamese coffee so much. We dived deeper and we did some research and we thought that we could bring a coffee in from Vietnam that would be enjoyed.
Our parents have been coffee producers and traders for more than 30 years and we know quality Vietnamese coffee. We said to each other, “Wow, this might be a great opportunity, so let’s start it, let’s bring some great quality coffee here from Vietnam.” We took a chance to build a great quality business and to also have a social cause attached to it. That's the reason why we reached out to CLAN. We studied and learned about the amazing work CLAN is doing, that’s why we’ve been very passionate and we are really grateful to now partner with CLAN and contribute a little bit to the amazing work CLAN does.
We’ve have recently launched two products with Campos Coffee. I think this is the first time that a large coffee brand in Australia has ever launched Vietnamese coffee on the scale we are doing with Campos. We feel very proud and also working with CLAN has been a pleasure, and we hope to continue to get more partners on board so we can bring coffee to more Aussie people and also contribute more to CLAN.
[Tami] - I was just thinking about why we think of CLAN, like CLAN’s model. In Australia we have NGOs, or government organisations taking care of people who have problems about the mental or chronic health conditions. We think back to Vietnam where life is different to that in Australia in this way. We happened to know CLAN and the projects in Vietnam some years ago, and we learned about that, and started to connect with CLAN and started the partnership.
[Will] - It appears that during the trip to Vietnam, Kate was inspired by children with chronic health conditions, and I think it was the thing that inspired her to start CLAN, starting in Vietnam, and then expand to all the regions. That’s the reason we were impressed with CLAN. We were looking for a charity partner to work in our homeland.
How did you find out about CLAN?
[Will] - We did a similar process when we found a water charity partner in the wine company. We didn’t really want to go with a massive NGO when we were looking for a charity partner. We wanted to make sure that the funds would actually go to helping people. That is also what we were looking for when looking for a charity partner. We wanted to find an NGO with a genuine story and a modest but active team who actually really knows what they're doing. I made a list of all NGOs endorsed by the government, on their website they had lots of charity organisations, and looked one by one, went to their website to see what they’re doing, and when CLAN came up on the list, it was the only one I reached out to at that time and we ended up partnering with CLAN.
What are you most excited about in your partnership with CLAN?
[Will] - I think the most important thing, the thing that I like about CLAN the most, you have the expertise and background, the 5 pillars helping children with chronic health conditions. I also think a big thing was all the transparency and information that Kate and Cath shared with Tami and me, and it does not require a big fund to start at all, because with a small startup like us, we don’t have a lot of funds to donate to the charity partner.
We told Kate and Cath that we had just started, and we commit to donate at least 1% of our sales but we really don’t know how much we can sell or where the company could go in the next 6 months. They are very supportive, very grateful, they give us some stories that show that $30-$40 can help save the life of a child, enough to support the medicine a child in need for a whole year, or something like that. I thought, wow, only $30-$40 is not much and we think that we can do that, we can make something happen, we were thinking we need more to make a small difference, that might not work, but with CLAN I think that everything seemed to be very aligned. There are many things to like about CLAN.
What are your goals for Great Cherry?
[Will] - That’s a really good question. I think when it comes to coffee, we want to expand it beyond Australia. Our first step would be Australia because it is a very choosy but also very developed market for coffee. Consumers are savvy, they want premium great coffee. We’ve found that once we can have some success with this market, we can verify our coffee is welcome and evaluated as good coffee, so we’re more confident to expand it to all the regions. That's what we’re actually doing. We’re reaching out to roasters and importers in Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, and we have received fantastic support and feedback. Many of them said we have never tasted coffee that good before, and we just right off the bat, came to an agreement with a German importer, and are in a very progressed discussion with a roaster and importer in the Netherlands, and so our goal is that we can, because every kilo of coffee we sell, no matter where we sell it, 1% of sales will contribute to the cause that CLAN is doing. We are hoping that once we can expand into all the regions and are selling globally, we can make a bigger impact, compared to what we are right now. I think it's a very long journey but I believe we can get there.
There’s one interesting thing, when we spoke with a partner in Germany. And the man who started it, he has a lot of charity initiatives before. When we mentioned Great Cherry, and sent him a link, he said he wanted to be involved and asked how to make it happen. I said that definitely, talking about CLAN, he said that let’s make this happen. He said “first we will partner with you, and then we hope that we will partner with your charity partner and to get going”. I thought wow, there are many people that we are speaking with, they might not end up buying coffee from us, or doing business with us, but the fact that we can introduce CLAN and we said that we are partnering with CLAN, they might just contact CLAN and support you directly. That’s possible, it’s one of my missions now.
Business is the one part that you need to have a good product or service. That is the essential part. But on top of that, we can do a lot of other things together. And if we cannot do business, we can connect over similar causes and have a lot of fun things to do.
What’s been the most inspiring moment in your work with building Great Cherry up?
[Will] - I think it’s from Campos.
[Tami] - The first inspiring moment was when we had the idea of letting people know how good Vietnamese coffee beans are. When we got the business model. That’s the second one.
[Will] - Our production partner, yes. Exactly as Tami said, there are two things that inspired us a lot. Once we saw the opportunity and started thinking ‘okay, now, we need to find someone who really understands coffee production who we can partner with to bring great coffee into Australia’. Through the introduction and network of my parents in Vietnam - they are coffee growers and traders for thirty years, they have amazing connections - we got to meet our now production partner in Vietnam, who looks after the quality production of our coffee. He’s an amazing guy, he loves coffee, he has a really good understanding of coffee and it makes us really confident that we have the right partner who shares our values. His desire and passion about coffee really inspired us.
The second inspiration was when we started reaching out to potential roasters. About 8 months ago, late last year, we didn’t have a business email or website, Tami and I just put a presentation together saying why we do what we do and a product brief. We reached out to some of the largest roasters in Australia and Campos came back and they were very interested. They immediately invited me to their office, we exchanged information, they were very supportive and they tasted our coffee which was up to their expectations. They placed the first and second order and did a big launch, and then they involved us on social media and podcasts, Instagram and Facebook. They were very supportive and we are very grateful. The next inspiration would be CLAN, an amazing charity partner so far. I think that’s what keeps Tami and I inspired and motivated and to continue to grow.
—-
https://greatcherry.org/
[Will] - My name is Will Nguyen. I'm a cofounder of Great Cherry, with my wife Tami, we are originally from Vietnam. I came to Australia to do my Masters, and I’ve been involved in a wine company called Little Ripples. They are a socially responsible wine brand where for every bottle of wine we sell we provide one person with an entire year of clean drinking water. I was surprised at how a small contribution can make an enormous impact on developing communities where people don't have access to clean drinking water. Most of our projects are in India and Africa because we don’t really have this water issue in Vietnam. Tami and I wanted to do something to build a business that could give back to the Vietnamese community where we were born and raised.
Tami is a barista in Sydney and when she spoke with her barista colleagues and cafe owners about Vietnamese robusta coffee, she found that nobody really liked Vietnamese coffee. We were surprised because we love Vietnamese coffee so much. We dived deeper and we did some research and we thought that we could bring a coffee in from Vietnam that would be enjoyed.
Our parents have been coffee producers and traders for more than 30 years and we know quality Vietnamese coffee. We said to each other, “Wow, this might be a great opportunity, so let’s start it, let’s bring some great quality coffee here from Vietnam.” We took a chance to build a great quality business and to also have a social cause attached to it. That's the reason why we reached out to CLAN. We studied and learned about the amazing work CLAN is doing, that’s why we’ve been very passionate and we are really grateful to now partner with CLAN and contribute a little bit to the amazing work CLAN does.
We’ve have recently launched two products with Campos Coffee. I think this is the first time that a large coffee brand in Australia has ever launched Vietnamese coffee on the scale we are doing with Campos. We feel very proud and also working with CLAN has been a pleasure, and we hope to continue to get more partners on board so we can bring coffee to more Aussie people and also contribute more to CLAN.
[Tami] - I was just thinking about why we think of CLAN, like CLAN’s model. In Australia we have NGOs, or government organisations taking care of people who have problems about the mental or chronic health conditions. We think back to Vietnam where life is different to that in Australia in this way. We happened to know CLAN and the projects in Vietnam some years ago, and we learned about that, and started to connect with CLAN and started the partnership.
[Will] - It appears that during the trip to Vietnam, Kate was inspired by children with chronic health conditions, and I think it was the thing that inspired her to start CLAN, starting in Vietnam, and then expand to all the regions. That’s the reason we were impressed with CLAN. We were looking for a charity partner to work in our homeland.
How did you find out about CLAN?
[Will] - We did a similar process when we found a water charity partner in the wine company. We didn’t really want to go with a massive NGO when we were looking for a charity partner. We wanted to make sure that the funds would actually go to helping people. That is also what we were looking for when looking for a charity partner. We wanted to find an NGO with a genuine story and a modest but active team who actually really knows what they're doing. I made a list of all NGOs endorsed by the government, on their website they had lots of charity organisations, and looked one by one, went to their website to see what they’re doing, and when CLAN came up on the list, it was the only one I reached out to at that time and we ended up partnering with CLAN.
What are you most excited about in your partnership with CLAN?
[Will] - I think the most important thing, the thing that I like about CLAN the most, you have the expertise and background, the 5 pillars helping children with chronic health conditions. I also think a big thing was all the transparency and information that Kate and Cath shared with Tami and me, and it does not require a big fund to start at all, because with a small startup like us, we don’t have a lot of funds to donate to the charity partner.
We told Kate and Cath that we had just started, and we commit to donate at least 1% of our sales but we really don’t know how much we can sell or where the company could go in the next 6 months. They are very supportive, very grateful, they give us some stories that show that $30-$40 can help save the life of a child, enough to support the medicine a child in need for a whole year, or something like that. I thought, wow, only $30-$40 is not much and we think that we can do that, we can make something happen, we were thinking we need more to make a small difference, that might not work, but with CLAN I think that everything seemed to be very aligned. There are many things to like about CLAN.
What are your goals for Great Cherry?
[Will] - That’s a really good question. I think when it comes to coffee, we want to expand it beyond Australia. Our first step would be Australia because it is a very choosy but also very developed market for coffee. Consumers are savvy, they want premium great coffee. We’ve found that once we can have some success with this market, we can verify our coffee is welcome and evaluated as good coffee, so we’re more confident to expand it to all the regions. That's what we’re actually doing. We’re reaching out to roasters and importers in Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany, and we have received fantastic support and feedback. Many of them said we have never tasted coffee that good before, and we just right off the bat, came to an agreement with a German importer, and are in a very progressed discussion with a roaster and importer in the Netherlands, and so our goal is that we can, because every kilo of coffee we sell, no matter where we sell it, 1% of sales will contribute to the cause that CLAN is doing. We are hoping that once we can expand into all the regions and are selling globally, we can make a bigger impact, compared to what we are right now. I think it's a very long journey but I believe we can get there.
There’s one interesting thing, when we spoke with a partner in Germany. And the man who started it, he has a lot of charity initiatives before. When we mentioned Great Cherry, and sent him a link, he said he wanted to be involved and asked how to make it happen. I said that definitely, talking about CLAN, he said that let’s make this happen. He said “first we will partner with you, and then we hope that we will partner with your charity partner and to get going”. I thought wow, there are many people that we are speaking with, they might not end up buying coffee from us, or doing business with us, but the fact that we can introduce CLAN and we said that we are partnering with CLAN, they might just contact CLAN and support you directly. That’s possible, it’s one of my missions now.
Business is the one part that you need to have a good product or service. That is the essential part. But on top of that, we can do a lot of other things together. And if we cannot do business, we can connect over similar causes and have a lot of fun things to do.
What’s been the most inspiring moment in your work with building Great Cherry up?
[Will] - I think it’s from Campos.
[Tami] - The first inspiring moment was when we had the idea of letting people know how good Vietnamese coffee beans are. When we got the business model. That’s the second one.
[Will] - Our production partner, yes. Exactly as Tami said, there are two things that inspired us a lot. Once we saw the opportunity and started thinking ‘okay, now, we need to find someone who really understands coffee production who we can partner with to bring great coffee into Australia’. Through the introduction and network of my parents in Vietnam - they are coffee growers and traders for thirty years, they have amazing connections - we got to meet our now production partner in Vietnam, who looks after the quality production of our coffee. He’s an amazing guy, he loves coffee, he has a really good understanding of coffee and it makes us really confident that we have the right partner who shares our values. His desire and passion about coffee really inspired us.
The second inspiration was when we started reaching out to potential roasters. About 8 months ago, late last year, we didn’t have a business email or website, Tami and I just put a presentation together saying why we do what we do and a product brief. We reached out to some of the largest roasters in Australia and Campos came back and they were very interested. They immediately invited me to their office, we exchanged information, they were very supportive and they tasted our coffee which was up to their expectations. They placed the first and second order and did a big launch, and then they involved us on social media and podcasts, Instagram and Facebook. They were very supportive and we are very grateful. The next inspiration would be CLAN, an amazing charity partner so far. I think that’s what keeps Tami and I inspired and motivated and to continue to grow.
—-
https://greatcherry.org/
