Of 80 franchises in New Zealand, their cafe’s been named Columbus Coffee Franchisee of the Year, and also won the operational excellence award.
They were also a finalist in the brand food delivery, business growth, food innovation, customer service, digital marketing and giving back awards — the latter a reflection of the work the cafe does to support local charitable trust Baskets of Blessing, which delivers gift baskets, food boxes and meal packages for those in need.
In fact, McMillan tells Mountain Scene the only award they didn’t get a look in was manager of the year, and that’s because they don’t have a manager or supervisor.
"There’s only me and Johnny, and everybody else is either front of house or back of house ... we’re all equal."
The pair have been in Queenstown for the past 20 years and worked variously in luxury lodges, such as Matakauri, operated boutique bed and breakfasts, including the historic Stone House, and had a management company, bouncing between Queenstown, Australia and the North Island for five years before Covid hit.
"So we got a ‘normal job’ at Mitre 10, and decided to buy the cafe a year later," McMillan says.
While it was possibly the worst time to buy into a business, given the impacts of Covid, the pair decided to heavily reinvest in the cafe, improving the decor, furniture and lighting, for example.
"I suppose because we are heavily customer-focused, if we don’t reinvest in our business ... we’re going to lose that clientele."
He believes that’s helped them win the operational excellence award and while last year the Queenstown cafe was named new franchisee of the year, this year, they went one better.
As for what separates them from the heard, McMillan thinks it may be, in part, their desire to constantly improve the standard, and their customers.
"We have heaps of return clientele — that’s probably our biggest godsend.
"They do a Mitre 10 national rating, and we have one of the highest foot-traffic counts that come in the front door and end up at Columbus.
"Our loyalty is very important."
He notes, too, there are some excellent Columbus operators across the country, some of them being Mitre 10 operators.
"Ours is separate to Mitre 10 — it’s really hard, we don’t have a Mitre 10 budget for our advertising and promotional stuff, so everything we do comes out of our pocket."
One such example is a 1952 BMW Estima, due to arrive today, which is being "wrapped in Columbus yellow" and will have pride of place outside the Brookes Rd premises.
"It’s one of those you have to open the front of the car to get in — [stuff] like that, we probably shouldn’t be doing.
"But it’s going to make a conversation piece, and put some smiles on faces," McMillan says.
