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Idealog.co.nz | The Transformation Issue
Everyone wants to
be good, but change
is hard. Again Again is
unlike biodegradable
disposable cups,most of which are
never recycled
or composted, or
personal reusable
cups, which are great
but which most peoplenever remember to
have with them.
MELISSA FIRTH
Again Again co-founderday, and pays 30 cents per cup can have an annual
saving of just over $1800 by adopting the model.
Again Again then gives a percentage of cafe revenue
to community partners to deliver waste education
initiatives to the public.
Before co-founding the company, Firth says
the two were old friends, both with professional
backgrounds and a focus on sustainability in
business and their personal lives. Piatek was founder
of Wellington fashion label deNada, which in its
infancy was incubated by CreativeHQ and which she
ran for 12 years. Her experience in fashion gave her
a solid understanding of manufacturing, which was
extremely helpful in the product design stages of
Again Again’s cups.
Firth says Again Again has been designed
to be operable at scale across both independent
and branded coffee vendors, where other sharing
schemes around New Zealand tend to be hyper-local.
“The power of Again Again is in the network.
Because customers can return the cups to any cafe
in the network, and because any custom branding
is attached to a heat sleeve rather than the cup
itself, Again Again’s system can go everywhere. That
means real impact at scale. We’ve estimated, based
on available data from our Wellington cafe network,
that with 50 cafes at 20 percent average uptake, we
are potentially already diverting 30,000 disposable
cups from waste every month. It’ll only going to get
better from there as we grow.”
So far, Again Again is building organically
without investment, yet with enormous global
opportunity and a positive adoption so far, the two
intend to raise investment later in the year. For a
new business, it has had an uncommonly smooth
run, which Firth credits to their industry knowledge
in both start-ups and cemented businesses.
“We’ve had almost a dream run, with no
major barriers in the course of both developing the
product, the system and the business model, piloting
it, and commencing rollout. I’ve coached a number
of startups in my time, and I think, perhaps because
both of us are more seasoned than younger founders,
that we’ve been able to hurdle decisions and barriers
that can trip early stage companies.”
The only barriers so far – apart from a few
wrongly sized lids and GST surrounding the model
- is that the system is growing too quickly for Again
Again to fund by bootstrapping.
“If anything, our biggest challenge has been that
the market is so ripe for this innovation that rapid
growth has put pressure on our cashflow to service
large orders. The big challenge on the mission side
of Again Again is that mass behaviour change is a
journey and we are attempting to take society on
that journey along with others doing excellent work
in this area. Growing the #choosetoreuse movement
will be a work in progress for a while yet.”
Firth says the demand has been strong in
both Wellington and Auckland, and the business
has received many café enquiries after launching in
Auckland on June 11.
“In Wellington, we now have 59 pioneering cafes
in the Again Again network, including 19 Mojo sites,
Vic Books and early adopters Peoples Coffee, Fidels
and Superfino. In Auckland, we had 40 foundation café
partners, including Hipgroup’s Britomart locations,
Espresso Workshop, Kind and Crave, most of Ponsonby
Central and City Works Depot, among many others.
Britomart Precinct themselves have been right behind
us since the earliest stages too.
“We have had, literally, hundreds of enquiries
from all around the country and have had a Wanaka
cohort, supported by a Souther Lakes District Council
grant, confirm to launch in October. Discussions are
continuing with many large institutions, many of whom
service the tourism industry nationally. Auckland
Council have also confirmed a small funding allocation
to support our growth in this region.”
In the future, Again Again wants to expand
nationally across New Zealand and in doing so, will aim
to divert 169 tonnes of cups annually from going into
our landfills.
“We want to take Again Again nationwide and we
want to raise investment to move faster and go offshore- with Australia and UK as first cabs off the rank. Our
stated three-year forecast is to divert 12 million cups
annually from New Zealand’s landfills. But we are
not just building a business here, we want to start a
#choosetoreuse movement. Our mission is to make
reuse as normal as convenience for on-the-go culture.”
Firth says Again Again is hitting all the right marks,
and says that as the company grows and includes more
of New Zealand’s coffee loving, environmentally friendly
people, the change in behaviour will follow easily.
“Conscious consumerism is here, and all
indications are that the time is right for our cup
lending system. People care, the message is getting
through, and the Again Again system makes it effortless
to do the right thing.”