Looking back on this trip I have realized how much market share Cafe Britt has inside Costa Rica. It doesn't matter where we go, it could be a small gift shop in the middle of no where or a high end gift shop, they all sell Cafe Britt coffee. For that reason, I have decided to dig deeper into the history of this company.
Well, during the 1980's the people of Costa Rica could not find a good cup of coffee even though these huge plantations were just around the corner. It comes to find out, all of the good coffee was being exported all around the world. It was at this moment Cafe Britt had and idea, a target market and went for it. In 1985, Cafe Britt became the first gourmet coffee roaster in Costa Rica.
Ever since that moment, the company has exploded. In 1995, Cafe Britt came out with their online store. This allowed its customers the easy access to order their coffee from anywhere in the world. Also, it pushed for a larger market than just Costa Ricans. However, they didn't make the step to add additional locations for their stores until 2004, when they opened in Peru. Currently, you can find Cafe Britt Coffee Corporation all over the world. They have locations in: Costa Rica, Peru, Curacao, Chile, and the United States.
While visiting Cafe Britt myself, I noticed how hard everyone was working. When looking over their website I realized how many awards the company has won. Currently, Cafe Britt has won the "Overall Excellence Award for outstanding performance in leadership, customer service, processes, environmental, innovation & HHRR" in 2007 & 2006. Also, in 2004 they were awarded a spot in the top 100 most admired companies in Central America. It seems that they have done well for themselves.
So, what does Cafe Britt sell? Well, they not only sell coffee, but also a variety of merchandise. For example, I saw that they sold many different souvenirs like coffee mugs, candies, post cards, t-shirts, etc. while in their store. However, they are most known for their coffee. Their 8 most popular coffees are: Costa Rica Dark Roast, Costa Rica Light Roast, Costa Rica Decaffeinated, Costa Rica Espresso, Costa Rica Shade Grown Organic, Tarrazu Montecielo, Tres Rios Valdivia, & Poas Volcanic Earth. As I just stated, some of their coffee is organic. According to their website, they are dedicated to their organic coffee suppliers to enable that water, soil, and biodiversity is preserved. Also, they say that they pay their farmers above the average market for the coffee. Looking back on the entire trip, I must say that Cafe Britt isn't perfect, but that they are far ahead of Chiquita and other banana plantations on their sustainable practices.
Information from: http://www.cafebritt.com/
1 comment:
Marty..that is a pretty good summary of Cafe Britt?s history.
Basically, what we have shown is that by adding value to traditional agricultural products a company can create jobs and pride in an industry that used to be extractive. We have over 500 employees from factory workers, to sales people, to IT, to marketing people, artists, actors, admin staff, customer service, architects, etc.. and we only handle 2000t of coffee!! When I was in the raw coffee export business we had 100 people and most of them hauled bags on their backs and we handled 10,000t.-!!!!
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