Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
Issue link: http://freshcup.epubxp.com/i/158781
( ( ( ( ( ( ( ( OFF the WIRE ) ) NEWS BR IE FS ) ) ))) ) ALTERRA NO LONGER: COLECTIVO CO-FOUNDER DISCUSSES NAME CHANGE acquired from the transaction have allowed us to add 130 jobs in our local area," Fowler says, adding that the money went toward building one standalone shop and a 15,000-square-foot bakery In July, Milwaukee roaster Alterra Coffee shocked the specialty- production facility with an attached café. coffee world by announcing it had changed its name to Colectivo And so, three years after entering the deal and with a renewed Coffee. As it turns out, it wasn't the first name change for the investment in the company, Alterra announced in July it was endbrand: Twenty years ago, Alterra launched as Altura (a Spanish ing its association with the Alterra name and would from then on word meaning "altitude") before learning another company had be known as Colectivo Coffee. Fowler says nothing will change the name and tweaking it to the variation it made famous. "Twenty with the brand except the name, and the company underwent years ago, Alterra was actually a made-up word and it had no real many months of brainstorming before settling on Colectivo. meaning," says Lincoln Fowler, the company's co-founder. "And The namesake is a type of bus in Central and South America it's only been through 20 traditionally painted in years of work that Alterra bright colors and used for has come to mean what it public transit. Fowler says does today." the company chose the During those two name in part because of decades, Alterra became the parallels between its known as one of the cafés and the colectivos. nation's top specialty"Although they're both coffee roasters, with a privately owned, they're dozen cafés (most of them major public amenities," located in Milwaukee) he says, "and they're gathand national prominence ering places for people. We gained in part through its felt like it connected with success in barista competius on multiple levels." tions. So why would such a And to celebrate the well-known brand change new name, Colectivo purits name? The answer has chased a vintage colectivo a lot to do with Alterra's in Guatemala that is being ties to an even bettertransported to Milwaukee known brand: Mars. and will serve as a unique In 2010, Alterra struck a form of publicity for the deal with a division of Mars brand. "That bus will now Inc. called Mars Drinks: be our physical manifestaAlterra sold the rights to tion that runs around our its name but continued to NEW MONIKER: Colectivo co-founder Lincoln Fowler (top, far right) says the con- region and champions the own its local operations. cept behind the colectivo buses for which the company is named parallels nicely name," Fowler says. "It'll with the spirit of the company's cafés. Mars began using—and be the spreader of good will continue to use—the Alterra brand on the single-serve pods news at special events all over the area." it sells for use in its Flavia brewers. The partnership baffled many While the name Alterra might have started as an invented word, in specialty coffee, but Alterra kept mum at the time on its rea- it grew into a trend-setting brand in specialty coffee. "It had a sons for the move. "The vacuum of information that was left was lack of meaning early on because there was no greater body of of course filled by the most convenient explanations," says Fowler. work to inform it, but now there is," says Fowler. And now that "It was frustrating not to be able to tell the whole story." work will continue under Colectivo Coffee—a name Fowler thinks The "whole story" is that the deal with Mars gave Alterra a large represents the company well and that he hopes will resonate with investment of capital—Fowler won't reveal how much—to put customers. "We work very hard to find the very best coffee that into the company before the name change. "The resources that we we can, but we also believe that our product should be highly continued on page 20 MORE NEWS AND NOTES FROM THE WORLDS OF COFFEE AND TEA CAMEL, NOT COW: U.K.-based chain Costa Coffee recently began offering camel milk at its stores in the United Arab Emirates, becoming the first international coffee chain to do so. Costa bills camel's milk as having up to 50 percent less fat than cow's milk and high amounts of vitamin C and calcium. | 18 Fresh Cup Magazine freshcup.com