Still buying wholesale coffee?
What if you didn’t have to?
Your café can roast its own — fresher than anything a wholesaler ships you, for about $6.25 a pound instead of $12–18. We send you the green coffee, ready to roast. No gas, no construction, no experience required.
Meet the Shop Roaster
It roasts your coffee.
It fits on your counter.
All-electric, ventless, and automatic. It plugs into the same kind of outlet as your espresso machine — and it makes the exact coffee you’re buying from someone else right now. From a single café up to 400 lbs a week.
No experience needed
If you can run an espresso machine,
you can run this.
Roasting brings up images of gas lines, a back room, and a trained roaster. Forget all of it.
Where your coffee money goes
67%
That’s the share of every pound of coffee
your wholesaler keeps.
That’s the share you keep
when you roast it in-house.
Grower: 11%. Trade + ship: 7%. You (the retailer): 15%. The roaster: 67%. When you roast in-house, that 67% stops leaving your building.
The math
That’s what you pay for specialty coffee
when you roast in-house.
Your wholesale supplier buys the same green beans for $5–6/lb and sells them back to you at $12–18. A 24 lb bag of green for $140 vs. the same coffee roasted for $280+. The difference is yours to keep.
Your numbers
See exactly what you’d save.
Drop in your weekly volume and what you pay per pound today. The savings are yours to keep.
What You’re Doing Now
This is what you’re currently spending on roasted coffee.
What You Could Be Selling
This is where you can estimate a retail opportunity.
Bellwether costs include green coffee, shipping, and shrinkage; electricity ($0.02/lb at $0.14/kWh US avg); and labor + maintenance ($0.35/lb). Retail bag costs include $1.50 per bag for packaging & labeling, plus green coffee.
Total ROI in a single year
$27,134
Saving money roasting with Bellwether
Grow with retail bags of roasted coffee
Before you ask
The switch, de-risked.
It won’t disrupt service
Roasting runs alongside regular service — about two minutes of attention per batch. Load it, tap a profile, and go back to pulling shots. Any staff member can run it, and there’s no roaster to hire.
It’s built to last
2,000 average roasts before failure. UL 197, UL 710, and NSF4 Food Safety certified — backed by scheduled 6- and 12-month preventive maintenance and full-bar service coverage.
The coffee’s better — not just cheaper
“No one could pick the production roast from the Bellwether roast. Most of them were the Bellwether roast as their favourite.”
Tom Flay, Head Roaster — Square Mile Coffee Roasters, London
Blind tasting against their production Probat machines. 20–25 tasters.
Questions about switching?
How much can I realistically save?
Most operators save $1,000–$5,000/month depending on volume. A 24 lb bag of green coffee runs ~$140. That same coffee roasted and sold wholesale costs $280+. That $140 spread — the roaster's 67% of gross margin — is yours when you roast in-house.
Is financing available?
Yes. Bellwether offers financing, and for most operators the monthly payment is less than what they're already spending on wholesale coffee — so the switch can be cash-flow positive from month one. Your rep can walk you through the options.
What does installation actually require?
A standard 240V, 30-amp outlet — the same power as a commercial espresso machine. No gas lines, no exhaust hood, no construction. In most locations, a licensed electrician can add the dedicated circuit in 2–4 hours. Plug it in and roast on day one.
Will this disrupt my workflow?
No. Roasting happens alongside regular service. A standard batch requires about 2 minutes of attention — load green coffee, select a profile, press start, go back to pulling shots. With the continuous roasting upgrade, staff load once and the machine runs up to 13 consecutive batches automatically.
Can my staff operate it? Do I need roasting experience?
No experience needed. The Bellwether is fully automated with cloud-connected roast profiles, and any staff member can be trained in under 20 minutes — it's less active labor than making a latte. Bellwether's coffee team helps you choose your first coffees and dial in your menu.
How reliable is it?
2,000 average roasts before failure. UL 197, UL 710, and NSF4 Food Safety certified. Bellwether provides scheduled 6 and 12-month preventive maintenance and full-bar service coverage.
Can I use my own green coffee?
Yes. The Bellwether roasts any green coffee you source. The Green Coffee Marketplace is a convenience — not a requirement. Many operators source their own green and use the marketplace to supplement specific origins or try something new.
Real operators. Real numbers.
Cafés like yours are already saving thousands.
“We were paying anywhere from $9 to $11 per pound for roasted coffee. Now, we’re paying closer to $4 or $5 per pound.”
“Roasting in-house with the Bellwether has really unlocked a lot of margin for us because we’re saving 40, 50% on what we would have otherwise spent.”
“We cut a lot out. At $20 a pound from our previous roaster, we’d lose money on every pound.”
Ready to switch?
See what your café would save.
Tell us your current volume and what you pay per pound — we'll run the numbers. No obligation.