Vietnamese Coffee Co

Company background

Brothers Gary and Martin Small began their love affair with Vietnamese coffee in 2013 after a stop-off in S.E. Asia on the way to Australia to visit their sister. Fast forward to 2016 when they both lost their long-term jobs within a few months of each other, the brothers decided it was an opportunity to turn their passion for Vietnamese coffee into a business and in May 2017 they opened the doors to their cafe in Belfast – Vietnamese Coffee Co. They are delighted to offer the coffee their customers enjoyed every day in the cafe in their online store so that they too can experience this unique, authentic taste of Vietnam!

Challenge

The company wanted to develop a new product in the form of a luxury giftbox to sell their premium coffee blends. They required an innovative packaging solution which would increase sales and offer a novel and unique experience to help this product sell commercially.

The giftbox will contain an assortment of coffee blends which will be sold at a premium rate due to its quality. The Vietnamese Coffee Co wanted to develop an interactive packaging solution which used elements of Augmented Reality to provide the customer with a unique experience for their range.

Solution

To assist with the development of their concept, Vietnamese Coffee Co was supported by North West Regional College (NWRC) Business Support Centre (BSC) through the InnovateUs programme which is funded by the Department for the Economy.

NWRC Creative & Digital Media Technical Consultant Aaron McKeever provided 60 hours of upskilling support in creating interactive models for packaging, creation of AR experiences, creating animations using both 2D and 3D media, optimizing models for Arloopa and testing them.

Impact

On completion of the project the company was able to develop digital interactive packaging for their luxury gift boxes.

Future

Martin Small, Co-Owner of Vietnamese Coffee Co described the benefits of working with NWRC’s Business Support Centre via the InnovateUs Programme: “InnovateUs is a fantastic programme and the support provided by Aaron McKeever was superb. Aaron helped us create something truly unique for a Northern Ireland business. The output from our collaboration is something that will have a real world benefit to our business and hopefully help us sell lots more delicious Vietnamese Coffee!”