Business & Coffee Chat With C4 Owner (Paula Griffith-Jones)

In this episode, Paula Griffith-Jones shares the journey of C4 Coffee, a Christchurch institution she's built with her husband Guy over 27 years. Starting from not even knowing how to order coffee in 1996, Paula joined Guy's original café C1 before they expanded into coffee roasting as C4.

The business has weathered significant challenges, including the Christchurch earthquakes and the pandemic, emerging stronger each time. Today, C4 operates a café-restaurant on Fitzgerald Avenue, a wholesale coffee roasting operation serving the South Island, and a retail presence in supermarkets.

Paula recently launched a new venture, Beauty at Dukes, a wellness hub offering beauty treatments with five additional rooms available for health and wellness practitioners. This space aims to provide an incubator-style environment for independent contractors in the wellness industry.

After nearly three decades in business, Paula credits their success to hard work, good timing, and adapting to changing market conditions. The C4 team now includes four full-time roasters, café staff, and wholesale operations. While maintaining their commitment to quality coffee, they've diversified their offerings to include events, barista championships, and equipment sales.

Looking ahead, Paula hopes to scale back slightly while maintaining the high standards that have made C4 successful, allowing their experienced team to take on more responsibility.