Price of Melbourne coffees have jumped the biggest in the nation

Wes Hosking
August 24, 2012
Herald Sun

MELBOURNE caffeine cravers are being roasted with the biggest price rise for takeaway coffee in Australia.

But a daily cup still sets drinkers back less than most capital cities.

Over the past year, the average price of a takeaway cappuccino in Melbourne shot up 18c to $3.36.

Costs are hardest to swallow in Perth, where cafes charge an average $3.87.

Sydney is home to the cheapest caffeine kick at $3.28 despite a 17c increase.

Gilkatho managing director Wayne Fowler, whose coffee machine retail company surveyed prices at more than 900 cafes nationwide, said wages and rental costs had the biggest effect on price.

“There is little connection between the cost of coffee, which is actually decreasing globally, and the cost of a takeaway coffee in Australia,” Mr Fowler said.

Di Bella Coffee managing director Phillip Di Bella said it cost about $1 for the ingredients to make a cup of coffee.

Sydney and Melbourne cafes were cheapest in their central business districts because of fierce competition. In Brisbane, coffees were dearest in the CBD.

Elwood’s Jimmi Jamz cafe owner Giuliano Buttazzoni, who sells a regular coffee for $2.50, said price was important but drinkers also demanded quality and service.
“It is very competitive and, if you do not provide something good, people will go elsewhere,” he said.

“Coffee has become an Australian staple.”

The latest Gilkatho Cappuccino Price Index, to be released today, shows, on average,a takeaway coffee in Australia is $3.47.

Prices overall rose 4.2 per cent in the year to June, more than triple the rate of inflation. The quarterly increase was 1.46 per cent.