LONDON BOUND: Ozone managing director Craig Macfarlane and chief executive Karla Gichard in the roasting quarters on King St.

Londoners are about to get a hit of Taranaki hospitality as Ozone Coffee Roasters prepare to go global.

The New Plymouth coffee roasting company, which supplies beans to more than 200 New Zealand cafes, plans to establish a cafe and roasting house in a trendy East London suburb.

Ozone managing director Craig Macfarlane said they had been working closely with associates in London since February 2009 and planned to open the roastery and cafe by March next year.

The proposed site near Old St in Shoreditch is surrounded by a high profile technology cluster known as "Silicon roundabout" where Google recently leased a seven-storey building, he said.

"It's really quite funky," Mr Macfarlane said.

The premises would feature a cafe and roastery across two levels.

"Our vision has always been to aspire to coffee excellence and achieve international recognition as a leading artisan coffee roaster," Mr Macfarlane said.

The operation was a partnership between Ozone Coffee Roasters New Zealand, London-based working partners James Gurr and Elizabeth Bain and Taranaki equity partners Dallas and Erin Chadwick.

Ozone chief executive Karla Gichard said: "The coffee culture in London is developing and immature in comparison to the New Zealand market."

NZ roasters and baristas were producing some of the best coffee in the world, she said.

"I think the coffee culture in New Zealand is at the forefront of the industry internationally," she said.

Ozone's London roastery would roast beans using the same techniques, origins, blends and roaster as it had in New Plymouth.

"It really is picking up this model and dropping it into London," Mr Macfarlane said.

The development was very much a Taranaki affair, he said.

"This expansion involves so many local people.

"It's not about a New Zealand company going to London it's about a parochial New Plymouth company."

If the move was successful Ozone would look to expand throughout the UK and eventually Europe, he said.

Taranaki Daily News