Fragmented Coffee Industry

john

:-[Does any person, who cares about and enjoys quality espresso have any ideas as to how the coffee industry in Australia can unite and truly call itself an industry????
:-/

FreshCoffee2

This is a very difficult question because it involves the two main players in the industry, both somehow pulling their heads in...     Some generalisations for you to ponder.     a) how do you get the major coffee suppliers to pull their heads in and STOP TRAINING cafe clients to choose their supplier on the basis of:     i) DEMANDS,   ii) PRICE, and     iii) the ill conceived (but incredibly well promoted) IDEA that when choosing a coffee supplier / brand the client is somehow making a...***LIFESTYLE CHOICE OR STATEMENT*** (gimme a break).     b)  having been so well trained by the above, how do you get cafe clients to be a little more humble and take more responsibility for themselves in all facets (not just coffee) of their businesses instead of blaming everyone around them when something isn't going right for them, in an industry that appears to be oversupplied with so called caf

Supertechnico

Well it is an industry with enormous potential dominated by foreign interests and a major local player. I'm not sure if the industry will unite. At the moment a few smaller players seem to be uniting themselves. Although I don't know why any of us would join our competitors in singing the same coffee song? After all can't the major players improve their products as well as spending huge amounts on marketing. I think that as is the case in other industries, the big guys get the most and it's a fact. There is plenty of room in coffee town for us all. But if it's unity the industry wants, we should look at a body that actually speaks on potential threats and monumental changes to the trade. Instead of useless coffee making competitions and labelling a small portion of the Australian coffee industry with the word Specialty or even worse an alignment with American Specialty Coffee! What is special American coffee anyway? Starbucks? Let's have all of our products and services speak for themselves. Part of the industry has done well re-inventing themselves. It's all good. :-*Super  

john

Thought that maybe we could have another look at this topic. I feel that it is a meaty subject that has not been explored. For the vegans lets say it's a tofu subject. JD

CoffeeNazi

a very simple way to revolutionise the industry... make a Coffee Roaster & Barista Trade or Traineeship, nationally accredited, obviously they would have to have modules written by someone with the passion and heaps of technical knowledge, Paul Basset would be my only possible choice. If this happened, business owners would see an upgrade in quality of workers in this industry, and advertising would soon after ask for qualified Barista's, so no one off the street can apply for the job unless they know what a sick brew is and can actually make one... its just an idea, but one of those things that'd work....

FreshCoffee2

Hi Matuzic,     not wishing to pour cold water on a good idea but it's already being done and it is not really working....     You can "train" people all you like but if there is no system in place for somehow checking that standards are being upkept, then what is the point.     The current system of whatever training relies on cafe workers being interested in it as individuals and wanting to further this personal interest.     The point of "attack" therefore (in this topic) would appear to lie in canvassing cafe owners themselves to want to do a better job on the simple task of producing a good cup of coffee for their paying clients, and therefore to either hire better staff, or for themselves to arrange to supply the training to their interested staff.       Unfortunately my own experience shows;     A) many cafe owners will not pay staff to go along to training programs (& to a certain extent you can understand the reluctance of cafe owners to train staff properly when in many cases there is quite a high turnbover of staff happening), and     many cafe staff have this idea that they already know   what they're doing and do not want to attend training even when it is offered at no cost to them and when they do (attend), either do not listen or argue with the trainer...   In addition to the above, there are many cafe owners in this country who are still living in the sixties as far as Australian "milk bar" espresso is concerned and think that kind of product is perfectly fine in todays market, and there are many others (cafe owners) that have come into their industry without any knowledge of coffee and rely on staff...therefore there is no "discipline" in terms of what the staff are expected tp produce for their paying clients. Lack of expectations and guidelines from the top amounts to a lack of leadership. Apologies if all of this sounds negative folks but there needs to be an "attitudinal" change within the cafe industry to want to do better and for all concerned to adopt a more professional approach. The act of wanting to be more professional needs to be somehow removed from the great "image" stakes con of coffee branding, where cafe people think they are doing the right thing just by having some fancy coffee suppliers breeze barriers outside the cafe. The paying public drink and pay for coffee, not breeze barriers, umbrellas and branded uniforms. All this can only come from within and will take time, no? FC.

john

P Some of the discussions in the topic of TOP BARISTAS, may be more relevant here. JD

Reschsmooth

One of the issues that has been mentioned in other topics, but I believe is relevant here is trying to educate the public that labels, product placement in certain restaurant shows, wind barriers, etc, often amount to squat when it comes to the final product. How is Joe and Jane Public going to know to demand good coffee when the only exposure via normal mediums such as Teev suggest that you would go a long way for instant coffee? I can draw some (loose) analogies with my industry (financial planning). When you see all the advertisements on Teev and the press, it is almost always by and about the product providers (fund managers). The consumer therefore gets drawn to the adviser [sic] that can sell that product, who is often 'owned' by that product provider. Does the client expect and receive quality, unbiased advice? Unlikely in all too many cases. Why? Because they don't know any different, because the objective of too much of the industry is to sell a generic product (I trust no other industry colleagues read these forums). Therefore, the adviser is able to get away with selling the product that best suits him (in terms of commissions) in spite of what may be best for the client. If I had my way for my industry, I would seek to limit the effective sponsoring of advice providers by product providers, and ensure that the quality of the service provision was improved. I would have the industry body ensure that the public is aware of what advice they should be seeking so they can demand that from us. How that relates to the coffee industry as I see it (assuming you haven't fallen asleep from reading the above)? Joe Public don't know no better, therefore won't demand a better service (as I would see the provision of quality coffee) but will be simply drawn to the best perception of coffee/product (ie, Italian sounding cafe names, wind barriers, etc). [Probably more twists'n'turns in that than the Pacific Highway!]. I trust my point wasn't lost in convolution. The main point is, when your customers know and demand a better product ACROSS the industry, there will be appropriate pressure placed on the industry to unite, rather than sell egos. Patrick

Reschsmooth

Much to Admin's pleasure, I am sure, I will leave the rest of this discussion to the industry participants, and read from afar..... ;D

admin

Not at all Patrick - in fact to your list of what i described as 'rational' or 'marketing' reasons you could probably add another - that unlike the wine industry, where a bar can (& always does) stock multiple brands, a cafe would normally only sell coffee from one roaster. However, I have worked in a lot of industries until I became associated with the coffee industry, and have never found one so full of spite and personal vindictiveness as this one...am still trying to work out why - but your input is as valid as any! -A

Gonzo

The multitude of reasons why have already been well covered however here is another perspective. Someone wrote this somewhere before in some topic or other in the forum however it is as well to remind...In the wine industry you are allowed to have athousand different interpretations of say, a chardonnay, from athousand different companies in a thousand different areas. Critics judge them on whether they are genuinely palatable or not, and comments are often heard to the effect that some particular chardonnay from such and such an area is a good representation of a chardonnay FROM THAT AREA etc etc. So in effect you can have a multitude of different styles of chardonnay and they are not judged on someone's rigid standard of what an original french chardonnay is (or should be) like. In addition, in the wine game the winemakers product is not tampered with at the "drinking end". You pop the cork and as long as the wine has not deteriorated in the bottle for some reason or other, you get what was intended. On the contrary in the coffee game a "common or garden" espresso blend served in a cafe is not always a true representation of what was intended as it has to be brewed up by someone to complete the product for serving to the consumer AND the coffee brand is judged on the basis of its treatment by the brewer, and in comparison to an italian product "standard" that is generally based on blends made up of totally different type of coffee wthat results in different flavour profiles (generally the italian industry is based on robusta while others are based on arabica). So an espresso blend based on a good quality arabica, fresh roasted and delivered from a local roaster is poo pooed, in favour of stale robusta based blends from large brand name companies with lots of money to throw into image building. Further, the coffee drinking public in general has absolutely no idea what constitutes real quality in coffee (you have to call a spade a spade)  and is therefore very susceptible to image building marketing campaigns from people who sell low quality products in good looking glossy packets. Thgis then makes an ideal playground for all and sundry coffee companies to play their market share games, continually reducing real profitability with all their giveaways and proce reductions in an era where the cost of running business just keeps getting higher and higher... No wonder the coffee industry is so fragmented. G.