Winnipeg is a bustling city of 750,000 people smack dab in the middle of Canada’s Great Plains. Often called “the Gateway to the West,” local residents sometimes fondly call their home “Winterpeg” to denote the long, bitter cold winters here.
Months of frigid winter weather makes Winnipeg the perfect location to sell hot coffee. It’s not surprising, then, that this city has witnessed a kind of specialty brand coffee house renaissance in recent years.
A Perfect Place for a Cup
Dozens of original brands and artisan coffee shops have sprung up over the past decade. Some of them have clawed their way to top of what has lately become among Winnipeg’s most competitive sectors.
One such winner is Thom Bargen Coffee Roasters. It opened for business in 2012 on Sherbrook Street. It’s the brainchild of Graham Bargen and Thom Hiebert. The success of their first location has led to the establishment of two more.
A milestone came in 2020 when Thom Bargen opted to begin roasting its own brand. To accomplish that, the small business invested in the high-tech Deidrich IR-12 roasting machine. It can handle 26 pounds of green coffee and has the ability to interface directly with tablet of computer applications.
High-Tech Equipment, a Comforting Brew
The IR-12 deploys infrared gas burners that allow for roasting using conductive, convective and radiant heat with a precise amount of control. Bargen and Hiebert made custom modifications to their machine. They call their coffee roasting methodology “Nordic inspired.”
Inside the shop is an array of leading-edge coffee-making equipment, including Nuova Simonelli ClimaPro and Mahlkomog EK43 grinders, a La Marzocco Linea PB expresso machine and dual Mazzers and FETCO XTS batch brewers.
The many happy customers of Thom Bargen are perhaps less impressed by the state-of-the-art coffee-producing technology than they are delighted by the product itself. The establishment enjoys robust in-store traffic. Bargen and Hiebert said they “love their customers” and the “feeling is mutual.”
A Partnership That Works
While partnership models are the type of businesses most likely to fail, Bargen and Hiebert have formed a synchronistic relationship. Bargen said he and Hiebert gave themselves distinct roles that “naturally balance each other.”
Consider that Thom Bargen opened its first store right across from a Starbucks!
Undaunted, these two young entrepreneurs formulated a competitive strategy to counter the coffee behemoth by focusing on the qualities of “home-grown appeal” and “affordability.”
It’s a strategy that has thrived.
