diff --git a/swh/journal/client.py b/swh/journal/client.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/journal/client.py
@@ -0,0 +1,106 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2017  The Software Heritage developers
+# See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
+# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
+
+import logging
+
+from abc import ABCMeta, abstractmethod
+from collections import defaultdict
+from kafka import KafkaConsumer
+
+from swh.core.config import SWHConfig
+from .serializers import kafka_to_value
+
+
+class SWHJournalClient(SWHConfig, metaclass=ABCMeta):
+    """Journal client to read messages from specific topics (what we
+    called queue with celery).
+
+    The configuration defines:
+    - brokers: the brokers to receive events from
+
+    - topic_prefix: the topic prefix string used to transfer messages
+
+    - consumer_id: identifier used by the consumer
+
+    - object_types: the types of object to subscribe events for. This
+      is used in conjunction of the topic_prefix key
+
+    - max_messages: The number of messages to treat together.
+
+    """
+    DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
+        # Broker to connect to
+        'brokers': ('list[str]', ['getty.internal.softwareheritage.org']),
+        # Prefix topic to receive notification from
+        'topic_prefix': ('str', 'swh.journal.test_publisher'),
+        # Consumer identifier
+        'consumer_id': ('str', 'swh.journal.client.test'),
+        # Object types to deal with (in a subscription manner)
+        'object_types': ('list[str]', [
+            'content', 'revision', 'release', 'occurrence',
+            'origin', 'origin_visit']),
+        # Number of messages to batch process
+        'max_messages': ('int', 100),
+    }
+
+    CONFIG_BASE_FILENAME = 'journal/client'
+
+    ADDITIONAL_CONFIG = None
+
+    def __init__(self, extra_configuration={}):
+        self.config = self.parse_config_file(
+            additional_configs=[self.ADDITIONAL_CONFIG])
+        if extra_configuration:
+            self.config.update(extra_configuration)
+
+        self.log = logging.getLogger('swh.journal.client.SWHJournalClient')
+
+        self.consumer = KafkaConsumer(
+            bootstrap_servers=self.config['brokers'],
+            value_deserializer=kafka_to_value,
+            auto_offset_reset='earliest',
+            enable_auto_commit=False,
+            group_id=self.config['consumer_id'],
+        )
+
+        self.consumer.subscribe(
+            topics=['%s.%s' % (self.config['topic_prefix'], object_type)
+                    for object_type in self.config['object_types']],
+        )
+
+        self.max_messages = self.config['max_messages']
+
+    def process(self):
+        """Main entry point to process event message reception.
+
+        """
+        while True:
+            self.log.info('client polling')
+
+            num = 0
+            messages = defaultdict(list)
+
+            for num, message in enumerate(self.consumer):
+                self.log.info(num, message)
+                object_type = message.topic.split('.')[-1]
+                messages[object_type].append(message.value)
+                if num >= self.max_messages:
+                    break
+
+            self.process_objects(messages)
+            self.consumer.commit()
+
+    # Override the following method in the sub-classes
+
+    @abstractmethod
+    def process_objects(self, messages):
+        """Process the objects (store, compute, etc...)
+
+        Args:
+            messages (dict): Dict of key object_types (as per
+            configuration) and their associated values.
+
+        """
+        pass