This year marks two milestone anniversaries for hospitality businessman Kenton Campbell.
Mr Campbell left his hometown in southern Oregon on the United States’ west coast, 30 years ago, with a lunch his nana packed and $50.
He took a trip down to Los Angeles and got on a plane to Australia, never to return.
The City of Logan and the people who live here remind Mr Campbell of his own upbringing.
“I came from a working-class background, where in southern Oregon, if you were a tree lopper or lumberer, then you were at a university working,” he said.
“I saw really good people trying to take that next step in their lives, and it’s the same in Logan; they’re just real, and I love that, that’s exactly where I came from.
Mr Campbell said he spent the majority of his upbringing with his grandparents, who both took pride in their 35-year-long careers as teachers, before retiring to Florida.
“The last time I saw my grandfather, over a decade ago, he told me how much he loved being a teacher,” Mr Campbell said.
“Having people tap him on the shoulder and say, ‘Thank you so much, the time I had with you was meaningful.’”
“Their whole thing was making people better versions of themselves and giving them opportunities and the support they needed.”
Adjusting to the Australian way of life and our diverse cultures was initially a challenge for Mr Campbell.
“I might speak English, but Americans are very different, and it took me a while to assimilate,” he said.
“I speak Australian with an American accent, now, but I love this country, and I do everything I can for it and for Logan.
“Logan has got such a diverse mix of cultures, probably the most diverse in Australia, and I was one of those people who brought a few of my own North American cultural things.”
The city has made such an impact on Mr Campbell that one of his sons’ middle names is Logan.
“Logan is an incredible name for an incredible city, which is going to be the centre of the universe, and it is geographically,” he said.
“We can be the ones to bind southeast Queensland together and make it really work.”
Operations for Mr Campbell’s three business ventures, Zarraffa’s Coffee, Distillery Road Markets and Perentie Brewing Co., are all based in Eagleby.
“Business is always generally tough; it’s never easy, and the landscape is always changing,” Mr Campbell said.
“Logan, especially, is built on the back of small businesses, and it’s difficult at the best of times.
“I’ve always wanted to make sure that I never assume anything because just when you think you’ve got it all set, and then the world falls apart for a while there.”
Mr Campbell and his wife, Rachel Campbell, opened Zarraffa’s 30 years ago in 1996, and as a coffee roasting business, which Mr Campbell said laid down strong fundamentals for the business to continue and prosper.
“Starting off as a roastery was a good thing because it meant we had a heart and a core of the brand,” Mr Campbell said.
“We’ve always had that heart mentality, a personable relationship with our customers, and as we’ve continued to scale up, we’ve tried to keep that, because that’s hard to.”
Covid-19 induced shutdowns of manufacturing, production and transport were a steep learning curve for Mr Campbell and the businesses.
Key decisions like moving Zarraffa’s operations to Logan in 2019, from the Gold Coast, having the facilities to store large amounts of stock on site and closing down, selling or converting the 23 Zarraffa’s locations to drive-through stores, to save the business as a whole.
“If we hadn’t moved up to Logan and built the infrastructure necessary to store our stock, which we get from overseas, we would be in trouble,” Mr Campbell said.
“We needed to store, in some cases, up to two years of stock, so that we didn’t have to stress about whether a container from overseas was coming in or not.
“We’re a logistics company, more than a coffee roastery, so logistics and training have ended up being the most important things we’ve done in the last 30 years, and we’re still learning.”
In its 30th year, with 80 operational stores nationwide, Zarraffa’s has reached icon status, Mr Campbell said.
Mr Campbell said he hoped DRM would persist for decades to come and consolidate its landmark status as a Logan community icon.
Other internationally iconic markets, like Borough Markets in London or Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Markets, are all council-run, which helps them achieve longevity in their operations.
“This is why I need the community to support us, because the money and infrastructure I’m putting in there’s no joke, and it’s for the community,” Mr Campbell said.
“It’s a long-term thing, and the best way people can support that venture is by coming in and supporting it.
“We’ll continue to try to make it better and better.”
