Coffee Roaster Business Plan

Beanisimo Coffee will leverage its competitive edge of the highest quality product to quickly gain market penetration.  This competitive edge is sustainable because it is based on the traditional roasting techniques of an old Italian master roaster. Beanisimo Coffee’s marketing effort will be based on the communications that assert that Beanisimo Coffee has by far the best products. Beanisimo Coffee will be vocal in their assertion of the message that while its coffee costs a bit more, the variance is not material and the difference in quality is immeasurable. The sales strategy will work on converting perspective customers into long-term customers by emphasizing high-quality products and high levels of customer service.  This strategy recognizes the fact that even though the company may have the best product, without excellent customer service the organization will not succeed.

5.1 Competitive Edge

Beanisimo Coffee’s competitive edge is its market leading product quality. By leveraging personal relationships, Beanisimo Coffee has gained the recipes and knowledge of an old Italian master roaster. Part of Beanisimo Coffee’s secret is the old world roasting techniques, part of the winning formula is the art of blending different green beans to come up with special recipes. Green coffee beans are a commodity, therefore any variations in one company’s coffee to another is based on roasting techniques if they are using the same types of beans. Beanisimo Coffee is able to stand out among its competitors by using time tested blends of different green beans to come up with compelling final products. This competitive edge is sustainable in the sense that this information that Beanisimo Coffee possesses is a trade secret and not available to other roasters. This will ensure Beanisimo Coffee will always have the finest products.

5.2 Marketing Strategy

Beanisimo Coffee’s marketing strategy will communicate to the target customer segments that its product clearly exceeds all of the competitors. The strategy will employ several methods to communicate the message. The first will be a print advertising campaign. Several different sources will be used including a local restaurant industry journal as well as a regional coffee shop trade publication. Advertisements in these publications will be effective in reaching the target audience.

A second method that Beanisimo Coffee will use to “get out the word” will be by having several different cuppings. A cupping is analogous to a wine tasting where many different varieties are tasted, compared, and analyzed. The cuppings will be a perfect opportunity for Beanisimo Coffee to have prospective customers taste the difference between its products and the competition. To develop awareness of the superior product offerings, Beanisimo Coffee must offer a superior level of customer service to support the products. Beanisimo Coffee recognizes that you cannot solely compete on product alone, that much of the transaction involves excellent customer service.

5.3 Sales Strategy

The sales strategy recognizes the need for the company as a whole to back up its superior product offerings with excellent service. This mantra is important because if there was not a service organization to back up the product, there would be no customers after the second or third purchase. Consequently, the sales strategy will focus on customer support and making the customer’s experience with Beanisimo Coffee as positive as possible. This strategy will use account managers that look after individual customers, ensuring that their needs are being met. The account managers will be responsible for a certain number of existing accounts as well as will be provided the resources to attract new accounts.

5.3.1 Sales Forecast

The sales forecast, described graphically in the following charts, is conservative in order to prevent unrealistic expectations and to help ensure the achievement of these goals. Sales will grow slowly but incrementally. As a start-up organization, it is realistic to expect that it will take time to grow the customer base so that it is at a sustainable level.

As mentioned in the previous section, account managers will be used to service existing customers as well as generate new accounts. Having account managers with a vested interest in the satisfaction of the customers will help ensure disciplined sales growth. Without account managers, the management believes that it would be too easy for customers to “fall through the cracks.”

5.4 Milestones

Beanisimo Coffee has developed several milestones that will serve as a goal to which the entire organization will strive to achieve.  All of the milestones are measurable allowing the responsible department to track progress and assess their ability to reach the milestone.

• Business plan completion.
• First major account: This will be the first large account that provides the company with a material recurring revenue stream.
• Profitability: For the accounting/finance department, this is a significant milestone.
• Revenue exceeding $300,000.