But a building development at Allpress Espresso's roastery in Emily Siedeberg Pl is set to change that.
Coffee beans for all the company's South Island customers have been roasted at the site, near the University of Otago, since 2011.
But when that building was acquired, one of the mistakes made was the company did not allow for growth, South Island manager Paul Dawson said.
``We really loved the building and didn't actually think of anything else,'' Mr Dawson said.
Business had continued to grow and storage was off-site meaning the equivalent of about a day a week was spent in a van ``shooting back and forth''.
It was decided to bring the whole operation together by building warehousing on the same site.
The style of the new building, which comprised a charcoal brick exterior with cedar batons, was modelled on the company's roastery in Japan.
The development was a substantial investment and signalled the company was committed to staying in the city, Mr Dawson said.
Founder Mike Allpress gave up a career as a chef to establish Allpress Espresso, one of New Zealand's first specialist espresso companies, more than 30 years ago. He had strong links to Dunedin.
There were about 10 staff employed at the Dunedin site.
