Favours coffee shop opens its doors in Walkervale

From the News Mail – July 15, 2022

Two former glassies who struck up a friendship while working together at a local pub 15 years ago have joined forces to bring a brand new coffee experience to Bundaberg.

‘Favours’ has opened its doors to the community, selling freshly brewed coffee, tea and treats.

The exciting new business is owned by local builder Matt Haimes and hostel owner Kyle Myers who recently opened the shop in Walkervale.

Matt moved to Brisbane in 2015 where he gained experience building Hampton-style homes before moving back home to Bundaberg last year and setting up his own building business, Haimes Industries.

From glassies to coffee shop owners: Kyle Myers and Matt Haimes have opened Favours coffee shop to the community, and are excited to stock Tea Tek Co, a unique tea brand part-owned by fellow Bundaberg local, Belinda Holzhauser.

He stumbled across the site of the shop, which was originally a shed adjoined to a former residential property, while doing renovations.

“The lady who owns the building said that she wanted to get a local coffee shop to start here,” he said.

“I just took the idea to Kyle and said there’s an opportunity to start something in a little shed.”

Kyle, who has a wider background in hospitality, originally said no to the idea, but pondered over the opportunity and decided to go for it.

“I’ve worked in finance, so business is something I like to do, so we assessed it and thought we could have a crack at it,” he said.

The shop name came about as a way to say thank you to people who had helped the business owners in the past.

“We’ve been helped a lot in business, a lot of people have helped us,” Kyle said.

“We based a lot of the stuff we do as doing favours for people and helping them out, so we thought if we could make a business name out of that, away from the standard or generic ‘bean’ or ‘coffee’ in the name, we could make it fresher.

“Which is the same ethos for the colour, we’re not a dark, moody coffee shop, we’re white, we’re light, we’re fresh.

Matt said it was his vision to create the shop using a Hamptons-style fit out that caught people’s eye and freshened up the space.

“We thought we would try and do something different,” he said.

It’s the first coffee shop in Bundaberg to use and stock bags of Wolff Coffee Roasters, a specialty coffee micro-roaster based in Hendra, Brisbane.

The boys have also partnered with local tea brand owner, Belinda Holzhauser of Tea Tek Co who says she’s excited that Favours will be her first stockist.

Belinda said she was on a camping trip with her Sunshine-Coast based business partner when they came up with an idea for the new brand.

“We wondered, ‘how good would a tea be right now’ and we got on this ramble about tea and thought, ‘how many times do you have a tea and don’t finish the tea, it’s sort of goes cold, it’s a bit bland’”, she said.

One of the unique tea blends by Tea Tek Co that customers can order at Favours in Walkervale.

“That’s when we came up with this idea to revolutionise tea and design our own specialty tea with various flavours, decadence and really fresh, fruity flavours.”

Matt and Kyle said it was a great opportunity to bring Tea Tek Co on board to diversify their offerings and help support another local business.

“We’ve tried the teas and it’s not like anything else,” Kyle said.

Some of the teas on offer include Strawberries and Cream, Earl Grey Creme Brulee, Apple and Mint Mojito, Green Passion Punch and Lavender Buttercake (Belinda’s favourite).

Full packets of Tea Tek Co teas and Wolff Coffee will also be stocked at the shop.

Kyle said he was looking forward to meeting new customers and is hoping the community love the vibe just as much as they do.

“The idea of coffee is a routine for a lot of people, so if we can make sure that first part of their day is good and memorable, then the rest of their day’s going to be more enjoyable, he said.

“We want people to come in and be a lot more energetic when they leave.”

Favours is located at 109 Barolin Street, Walkervale and is open Monday to Thursday 5am to 5pm, Friday from 5am to 7pm and Saturday and Sunday 6am-4pm.