Fresh Cup Magazine, providing specialty coffee and tea professionals with unique insight into the trends, ideas, products and people that shape their world.
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What's more, such collaborative buying is becoming increas- ingly organized and powerful. Coffee Roasters United in Portland is a recently forged group of roaster-retailers that includes Sterling Coffee, Case Study, Clive Coffee, Seven Virtues and Red E—these small companies pool resources to purchase coffee. Through partnering, they collectively purchase lots of exquisite coffees at competitive prices, reduce shipping costs and give micro-roasters access to direct-trade relationships with producers that otherwise would have been out of reach. From a consumer standpoint, Coffee Roasters United stands to become a stamp of quality for the roaster-retailers involved. THE NONPROFIT END The notion of roasters working together has also been instru- mental in funding nonprofit groups like Coffee Kids and Grounds for Health. Often, donations are offered by roasters in exchange for the use of these organizations' logos on packaging—such branding helps indicate to consumers the commitment of a roaster to improving the lives of producers. Coffee Kids, a nonprofit also devoted to improving the lives of families in coffee-growing com- munities, in fact runs a model that is wholly based on collabora- tion. Every project that Coffee Kids supports is a collaboration with local groups operating in the community at origin. Carolyn Fairman, Coffee Kids' executive director, describes a partner- ship the organization has with Self Managed Development in Veracruz, Mexico; in one project, they collaborated with Mexican economists to develop a micro-financing model. By partnering with nonprofits and social cooperatives in coffee-producing countries, Coffee Kids has the input from local constituents, increasing the value and reach of the organization's programs. At the same time, the approach empowers local communities to improve and become experts themselves. Self Managed Development's success with the micro-financing model in its home base of Veracruz has allowed the organization to share the model with CECOCAFEN, an association of coffee cooperatives in Nicaragua. Yet another case of industry alliance: Competitors within the coffee industry, from roasters to equipment manufacturers, help fund training centers and schools to expand their reach to poten- tial wholesale customers. The American Barista & Coffee School exemplifies this. Multiple roasting and equipment companies sponsor and support the school, showcasing their coffee and machines to students. The ABC School educates coffee retailers from across the country and provides exposure for all of the sup- porting roasters and manufacturers. Students enrolled in the pro- gram improve their skills at preparing coffee and leave with tools for starting and operating their businesses. Equally valuable is the classroom space where different coffee companies often gather for industry presentations and trainings. The success of classes, lectures, competitions and resources produced by the SCAA, Barista Guild of America and the Roasters Guild depend on a collaborative mindset and willingness to share best practices and enter into discussions about what works and what doesn't. SCAA members continually fund important scien- tific and business research, ultimately leading to the quarterly Coffeehouse Sales Trends Report, the Specialty Coffee Consumer Report, and industry guilds that are instrumental in developing protocols, certifications and standards. MULTIPLE ROASTERS, SINGLE GOAL Now more than ever, we're seeing collaboration in very tangible Collaborative buying among small roasters is becoming organized and powerful. Companies collectively purchase exquisite coffee, reducing shipping costs and giving micro-roasters access to direct-trade relationships. forms at the retail level. It is more and more common to find cof- feehouses that showcase coffees from a variety of coffee roasters. These shops give baristas, roasters and consumers an opportu- nity to taste and compare these coffees side by side. Many roaster- retailers, like Portland's Public Domain, feature guest coffees from competing roasters, giving baristas a chance to experience, under- stand and learn the nuances of different coffees. Offering coffee from guest roasters is a great con- versation starter that encourages customers to explore coffee. Collaboration is one tool to encourage the public to join us in our passion for great coffees. Public cuppings are becoming more and more common, often with different roasters present- ing coffee from the same region, farm, country or cooperative side by side. This gives consumers the opportunity to taste fantastic coffee, explore differences in terroir and coffee variety, and expe- rience the ways different roasters interpret a single bean. Competition in specialty coffee is fierce, even though many roasters have respectful friendships throughout the industry. It would be naïve to ignore the fact that there are more and more roast- ers fighting for wholesale accounts and more and more shops vying for customers. Roasters flip wholesale accounts from one another, and then often gain them back again. It's a tough way to make a living. However, if a roaster finds it easy to steal an account from a competitor, the chances are that that account won't have much loyalty. A more sustainable approach to building our businesses is to create a larger base of specialty coffee drinkers, and in this sense, collaboration may be just as important as competitive instinct when it comes to the growth of an individual business. Working together increases access to great coffees, multiplies our resources to fund research into coffee science and trends, and provides models to improve our processes, procedures and, ultimately, quality. When we work together, we showcase just how amazing and unique different coffees can be, which in turn elevates the cache of the entire industry. freshcup.com November 2012 55