A lean 2012

A new year is approaching and with that being said, its time to get leaner and meaner to increase top line revenues and beef up our bottom line. We are lowering our fixed costs by moving to a new location that will provide us with ample square footage, and the right price for each of those squares… By reducing our fixed costs, we “instantly” become more profitable for every pound of coffee we sell. We are also planning to actively search for new private label clients, which, is a profitable area for us.

Forecasting and futures contracts suggest that 2012 could provide for easing in commodity prices(even WTI crude showing resistance below the $105.00 levels heading in to the close of 2011) at least in Q1 and Q2. Forecasting and futures contracts suggests that the price of coffee will drop and even out to a more palatable range. The exact opposite of this past year(coffee was grossly overpriced). If this is the case, better for us. Nicer accessibility to exceptional coffees for our wholesale clients and lower, less volatile differentials. To better understand where our markets may be going, we look at coffee futures, but also sector ETF’s(exchange traded funds) that have exposure to coffee. For example, take a look and do some charting on ticker symbol “CAFE” a Barclays iPath ETF or click here. Take key not of support and resistance levels and pay special attention to the volume for this ETF…

Why are we doing this? Lets just say its time to save and well, expand…

 

Stay Tuned

 

R

New stuff

If you have been on our website as of late, you may have noticed a few changes. Mostly design and ascetics, but we have also added new products to our online shop. We are actively looking to expand our web-based, direct to consumer business. This is stemming from our recent run on Lot18(check them out. Awesome company run by awesome people. www.lot18.com) which proved to be extremely successful and rewarding. We will be doing everything in our power to leverage the capacity of the Internet to get fresh roasted coffee to anyone and everyone.

Within the next week, subscriptions will become a part of our online assortment.  As of now, it looks like they will all run in a 3 x 3 style- 3 coffees per month, for a 3-month time period. A variety of coffee will be featured with almost no repeats(i.e. never get the same coffee twice…)Each subscription will target a specific type of coffee consumer. The hope is that we can please a wide range of palettes ranging from novice to professional baristi.

Stay tuned and let us handle your home-based coffee needs without flaw.

Visiting La Marzocco

A few weeks ago I had the chance to spend a week at La Marzocco USA in Seattle, Washington. Awesome experience both on a technical level, but also a personal one. Taking apart machines and putting them back together is great fun. Playing on the brand new Starda EP, awesome. Hearing the words, “Fuck Tea” repeated over and over, priceless. But what truly made the trip memorable was meeting those who work at La Marzocco. Without getting all teary eyed, some of the coolest group of individuals around work there. But maybe I’m just jaded because they like coffee too…

Check out some pics below from the adventure. Excuse the quality of photo or lack there of – A blackberry is not an iPhone.

Starting off right

I think we have had nearly 4 blogs in the past 2 years. None of which have been updated regularly or cared about or loved. I don’t really care about the past, but this one will be different and the 5th time is always a charm. I promise.

I settled on a WordPress format simply because I felt like it and its fairly easy to use. I suppose the fact that I use WP CMS(Content Management System) for my company’s  main website – www.superbacoffee.com played a role as well.

Moving on past the gibberish. This blog will be used to relay information and updates on my company, random coffee stuff, and things I love. As you will soon learn, what appears here makes me happy and that’s why I am choosing to share it with you.  Enjoy the new blog and let’s hope it gets updated more than one a year.

R