Tony Unkovich has been entrenched in the Coffee Industry for over 22 years. A true entrepreneur, Tony bid farewell to a successful executive career as an Accountant in the early 90’s to embark on his journey of being a business owner, with his first business being a high-end liquor shop. 

Tony’s first foray into the coffee industry began upon registration of the name ‘Cafe Corporate’ which trialled a fully automatic coffee machine in offices in 1998. Little did he know, this was the beginning of Cafe Corporate’s dynasty, becoming Perth’s No. 1 fully automated office coffee machine supplier for a 21-year period. With turnover in excess of $4 Million per annum and over 20 employees, the empire slowly expanded into a bricks and mortar cafe (setup and part-owned by daughter Jess) next-door, a water filtration business and eventually a coffee roasting company.  The combination of coffee machine sales, coffee beans and servicing – along with water filtration, coffee roasting and a café provided a total solution for every kind of coffee consumer – both commercial and domestic. 

In 2017, Tony’s daughter Jess assumed sole ownership of the café (Jessie’s Cafe). Café Corporate was then sold in January 2019 followed by the water filtration business, Aqua Leau, in June 2019. Post this period, Tony’s extensive business experience has been solely poured into his long-time passion, Little Owl Coffee Roasters.

Investing over $1m in plant and equipment has helped ensure Little Owl Coffee Roasters are one of the most advanced, reliable and high-quality coffee roasting operations in Perth. Tony is now steering the Little Owl Ship and has personally assembled a dedicated and passionate team of high achievers who are equally passionate about Little Owl Coffee Roasters and treat it as if it is their own business. With one of the most renowned Head Roaster’s in Perth, a Commercial Manager over-seeing the long-term growth of the company, a barista trainer with over 20 years experience running barista school’s and the like, as well as two key administrators both with an extremely wide skillset gained from various different industries, this team has everything needed to ensure all Little Owl customers are treated like VIP’s. 

Above all, Tony is a family man – with wife and business partner Deb and 2 beautiful daughters, Emma and Jess, Tony has always emphasized family comes first and this applies to all staff, customers and any other business relationships which we also consider as part of the extended ‘Owl fam’.