Ian Balmforth

Ian Balmforth joined his family’s coffee roasting business in 1992 having spent some years with IBM. The company was doing well supplying local and regional hotels, cafes and restaurants but Ian was keen to develop it through a combination of increasing the choice and quality of the coffee range and to develop an appealing range of equipment, service and training.

Building on this success, Ian’s idea was to diversify into the speciality food and drink sector, an industry in which coffee hadn’t particularly progressed in recent times. He was keen to investigate both direct trade via an online shop and to reach consumers through like minded retailers.

He was also keen to take advantage of the company’s state-of-the-art roastery and to build on existing relationships with coffee growers and cooperatives in order to deliver new tastes and flavours through the Grumpy Mule brand.

His coffee travels have taken him far and wide from sourcing expeditions to Sumatra, Brasil, Kenya, Tanzania, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) events in the US.

He says: “Coffee is such a part of our food and drink culture now in the UK and yet there isn’t really very much choice available to consumers. I hope that the Grumpy Mule coffees will enable coffee drinkers everywhere to experience this exciting drink how it should be drunk and I am looking forward to hearing their feedback, not to mention each new coffee harvest and the surprises they bring."