Rocket Monkey Roastery

Rocket Monkey Roastery offers a truly unique Scottish artisan coffee for wholesale and retail customers.

Owned and run by coffee enthusiasts Andrew O’Donnell and Remo Bertellotti, they source only the highest quality green beans from small family run farms and micro lots throughout the coffee growing world, which they then hand roast from their premises in Union Arcade, at Ayr’s Burns Statue Square.

With a selection of 16 delicious flavours, Rocket Monkey’s aim is to make speciality coffee attainable and affordable for everyone.

South Ayrshire Council’s Community Wealth Building (CWB) team has been supporting the business to expand and recently awarded them a £5,000 grant to purchase a new semi-automatic machine for scooping the coffee into bags, then heat sealing and date stamping them, significantly reducing the manual labour involved.

Andrew explains: “The CWB grant is allowing us to transform our business. It is propelling us forward by about two years as the new equipment is freeing up members of our team who can now get involved in learning new skills to help with other aspects of the business and enable growth.

“Together we can now focus on the bigger picture and putting all our plans into action – from achieving Salsa Accreditation, to developing recognised barista training for other hospitality businesses and, crucially, opening our own coffee shop where customers can see our roasting process in action and enjoy free tasting sessions.”

Despite not yet having sit-in premises, customers can still enjoy Rocket Monkey’s range of products from their coffee van and trailer which they take to events such as the Open Golf and the Ayr Show.

Andrew says: “We’re proud to be an Ayrshire business and are passionate about being part of the Ayrshire business community. We also support the local supply chain wherever possible, using local talent from specialist bakers to graphic designers.

“We’re extremely grateful to SAC for their support. We’ve been through some turbulent times since starting the business in 2017, but being able now to purchase this new equipment is a massive step forward for us in helping us achieve our business ambitions.”

To find out more see Rocket Monkey Roastery