A Note From The Founder…

So, what inspired me — and why I built Air-Motion Roasters

There’s a moment I’ll never forget: standing in the roasting area of my little Bakery-Roastery back in 2010 in South Africa, inhaling that rich aroma of coffee, watching green beans transform before my eyes… and thinking: there must be a better way.

At the time, I was roasting for our own artisan bakery, bistro & coffee shop, but I was restless. I sensed something shifting in the coffee world. The Specialty-Coffee trend was quietly gaining momentum, and I knew the roasting process itself deserved to evolve.

That curiosity and hunger to improve are what eventually birthed Air-Motion Roasters.

From hands-on Roaster to Inventor

I had spent years roasting coffee, learning the hard way about the compromises and limitations of the machines around me. Early air-roasters produced decent results, yes — but I kept asking: why can’t I raise the bar even further? Why must one sacrifice control, consistency or sustainability for speed or cost?

With that mindset I began designing and building my own roaster with two engineering partners: a mechanical engineer and an electrical/software engineer. The ambition was clear: a machine that gave a roaster full artistic control, while delivering the precision, consistency and minimal environmental footprint that I believed the future demanded.

This led to the first prototype, a 6Kg roaster and then later the launch of our 3Kg and 12Kg Air-Motion machines.

What keeps driving us — Our core beliefs

1. Where Art meets Science in Roasting

Coffee roasting is rarely purely craft or purely engineering — it’s both. I firmly believed in blending the art with the science: the sensory intuition of the roaster, the creativity of profile design, merged with rigorous engineering, data collection and real-time control. Our design philosophy today reflects this: an Open Chamber where beans float on hot air, touch metal, regroup, circulate… you can see, hear and smell the process.

2. Accessibility and Empowerment

I built Air-Motion not just for large commercial roasteries but for anyone with a dream to roast. If you have a passion for coffee, you deserve a machine that gives you control and results — regardless of scale. “Making dreams come true”, is my ultimate Mission.

3. Better for the Planet

Sustainability matters to me. Many roasters still burn fossil fuels, deal with smoky exhausts and heavy ventilation systems. Our Air-Roasting technology uses all-electric power, minimal emissions, very low exhaust temperatures, and a clean roasting chamber — so you taste the coffee bean, not the roaster.

4. Innovation, not tradition for its own sake

I respect tradition — yet at AMR, we are not bound by it. Drum roasting has a long history, but if a better way exists, we want to explore it. That’s how we came to combine convection and conduction roasting in the same machine, giving roasters control over both.

The Journey so far

From a small Bakery Roastery to a Global Machine-Maker: that’s been my path. Today, Air-Motion Roasters is headquartered in Johannesburg, with machines shipped and used around the world — across six continents.

We’ve also seen incredible feedback: roasters saying, “Our coffee just keeps getting better with every sip.” That’s what we aim for.

Along the way, we’ve introduced live-virtual roast events, launched new models, and continue to improve the software and hardware that power our machines.

Why I’m still Passionate today

Because there’s always that moment of transformation: the first crack, the swirling beans in the roast chamber, the aroma… and then the cup. When a roaster tells me they’ve unlocked a flavour they never thought possible, or when a small business gets a machine that empowers them to thrive — those are the moments that keep me excited.

Because for me, this isn’t just about machines. It’s about dreams — roasters, business-owners and coffee lovers unlocking their potential. It’s about flavour clarity, consistency, artistry. It’s about doing this while respecting our planet.

And it’s about being part of a Global Coffee Community that doesn’t settle for “good enough”. We want Exceptional. We want the Edge. We want “Art-Motion” in motion.

So, what’s next…

The next frontier for me includes expanding our capacity (we are currently looking at developing a 20 kg machine), evolving our software to harness AI for roast automation, although never losing that Human Touch that our roasters rely on, and further, lowering the barrier so that more roasters worldwide can access our technology.

I’m excited for what’s coming — for the roasters who will join us, for the coffees we’ll discover together, and for the ways we’ll continue to push craft, flavour and sustainability forward.

Thank you to all that have been part of my journey so far. Here’s to many more roasts, many more cups, and the shared love of our exceptional roasters and most importantly to exceptional coffee.

Julian Platt