coffee business strategies

False alarm! Despite arriving in my inbox today tagged as happening in the United Kingdom, this article was actually from April 13, 2009 in Birmingham, Alabama U.S.A. (the US280 reference should have been a tipoff). Nevertheless, it’s clear that the marketing campaigns continue and my comments following the article are still valid… Just when you [...]

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The SCAA sustainability committee today released (though dated 4/14/09) a comparison matrix of major coffee certification programs: Organic, Fair Trade Certified, Rainforest Alliance, Smithsonian Bird Friendly, Utz Certified and 4C Common Code. Although making no value judgements or analysis of the ultimate effectiveness of these programs, the matrix does objectively evaluate the structure, history and [...]

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Hooray! The August / September James Beard Foundation member newsletter is here! That’s right, the current JBF Notes includes my profile, quotes and a picture in the article titled “Will Work for Food,” which is at this very moment on its way to the mailboxes of the world’s culinary elite. Even for someone who is [...]

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In Specialty Coffee Retailer Magazine’s Ten Trends for 2010 this August, my comments on overseas expansion of the specialty coffee industry have ranked an impressive E-L-E-V-E-N. Rock on! “The majority of our company’s work has come from Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in the past 2 years,” says coffee industry consultant Andrew Hetzel [...]

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Last week amidst Starbucks’ Q3 earnings call and the unveiling of its semi-marked 15th Avenue Coffee shop concept, my phones were ringing off of their proverbial hooks with clients, institutional investors and reporters all trying to get some insight into what was happening with the business and its position relative to the specialty coffee industry. [...]

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