New Business Brings 'Me Moments' – And 10 New Jobs – to Pukekohe

Iconic café Muffin Break has answered increasing consumer demand for more transparency in food preparation, with a new-look café opening its doors in Pukekohe.

The new Muffin Break store, which opened this week, is the result of an innovative new build project to enhance food preparation visibility to customers, creating 10 new jobs and the launch of a new and exciting concept known as ‘Me Moments’.

Developed alongside the new-look Muffin Break stores that represent the invigorated identity of the iconic brand, Pukekohe café lovers will also now be able to enjoy their very own ‘Me Moment’ – a brief break in any busy day to enjoy coffee and a freshly-baked treat in spacious, relaxed café surroundings.

The brands new look and feel comes after the company conducted extensive research both in New Zealand and across the Tasman which identified a local trend from café-goers towards transparency in food preparation.

Muffin Break National Brand Manager, John MacPhail, says the research undertaken demonstrated a desire from Kiwis for a greater degree of visibility into kitchen areas in cafés and restaurants where they chose to enjoy a coffee and some time out.

MacPhail says while his stores already have an open-plan style café, the learnings from the research reinforced just how important this visibility was to customers.

“Now customers will be able to see first-hand exactly how our staff bake the delicious muffins and food we make daily and watch how each cup of coffee is made from freshly ground beans,” says MacPhail.

Muffin Break Pukekohe owner Di Gurney says she is excited for her store to be the flagship café for the brand’s new look.

“The fit-out is more than just a cosmetic change – it is about letting our customers see what goes on behind the scenes at their favourite café – and for them to see how passionate we are about the fact that we bake every day and grind every cup,” says Gurney.

“Further to this, we are also proud to be able to support the local Pukekohe community by offering 10 new jobs to the area, thanks to the opening of our new store,” she says.

Macphail, who is responsible for overseeing the implementation of the new interior design and décor, says the brief was to create a modern café environment that also embraced Muffin Break’s evolution into a brand that offers more than just muffins.

“While we wanted to make the café up-to-date and current, we needed to balance this with clever use of rustic and imperfect materials to illustrate the wholesome nature of the array of products available in store,” he says.

The new look Muffin Break café, which boasts a spacious layout with a softer colour pallet featuring warm, inviting hues, also introduces full-length and transparent muffin cooling cabinets and additional unique features such as design integrated light fixtures.

“The features in the new fit-out are all designed to showcase the Muffin Break market difference – which is that we have bakers on site making the food and skilled baristas who treat their work as an art form,” says MacPhail.

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