Jianghu behind coffee beans: proliferation of small workshops, multi-channel melee, specialization into a trend

For professional baristas, please follow the coffee workshop (Wechat official account cafe_style)

It is difficult to buy beans, and it is not easy to sell beans.

"Singles Day" is coming, others are chopping their hands to buy, coffee shops are probably busy taking advantage of discounts, full hoarding of good beans.

However, in the face of strong promotions, small bakers selling beans are a bit "mixed"-the discount is out of their control, and the profit is too low after the discount.

It is difficult to buy beans, and it is not easy to sell beans. Some people say that it is time for coffee bean baking suppliers to form brands and make market segments!

Ka Men | Li Mu, from Shanghai

one

There are five ways to buy beans in a cafe. Which one are you?

Hua Young Cafe, located on the campus of a university in Hangzhou, has mainly college students as its customers.

According to the shopkeeper, the main source of his coffee beans is online procurement, Seesaw, staggered coffee, beans uncle coffee. Basically all the shops of these brands have been patronized.

"in general, cafes that pay attention to quality will shop online, with better freshness and taste. There are also many kinds to choose from, including big-name suppliers such as lavazza and illy coffee, as well as many local brands. " The shopkeeper who spent the Young years said.

This is also the epitome of tens of thousands of small and medium-sized cafes in China.

The channels for ▲ to buy beans are various and not fixed.

The number of cafes in China has reached 100000, according to a 2016 survey by Ka Men on the current situation of cafes in China. Among them, in addition to the first echelon of Starbucks, Pacific, Costa and so on, the national brands can be said to be few.

What's more, it is a small cafe that carries the dreams of coffee lovers.

It is understood that these small cafes mainly have five ways to buy coffee beans:

1. The earliest is to choose local suppliers, most of which also supply milk tea, ice cream and other raw materials, most of the quality of coffee beans is not high, but the price is favorable.

A coffee shop owner revealed that coffee beans of 20 to 30 yuan per jin are very common.

two。 There are also some specialized equipment suppliers also provide coffee beans, because of the trust relationship formed when purchasing equipment before, many cafe owners will also choose this part of the supplier, and the prices of the beans they provide are also more favorable.

3. Some coffee training institutions also sell coffee beans, and the main buyers of their beans are students who open their own shops after training, such as stagger coffee, carved time coffee, etc.

4. There are also a small number of cafes that buy raw beans and bake them themselves. in addition to their own stores, they are also sold through online and offline channels, such as Mingqian coffee.

5. In addition, online shopping has become a more and more popular channel, with a wide range of choices, including beans from well-known brands such as lavazza and illy coffee, as well as some small shops.

two

It is difficult to buy beans in cafes and it is not easy for roasters to sell beans.

In 2010, Uncle Dou Coffee began to sell beans online.

"over the past seven years, annual sales have grown at a rate of 20%. Because we are still small, and we are not very good at marketing. " According to Uncle Dou, sales of well-run bakery suppliers could grow by 100% last year.

In addition, according to Dou Shu's observation, in the past two years, with the rise of boutique coffee, most of these boutique cafes have begun to choose to bake their own beans.

▲ 's own baking of beans reduces the need for purchases.

For example, at present, in Beijing, there are some boutique cafes that bake coffee beans by themselves. Obviously, this will separate some of the customers from the baking suppliers.

On the other hand, ordinary small cafes are still very sensitive to the price of coffee beans.

A cafe owner calculated an account: if you make 50 cups of coffee (12oz's medium cup) according to 1 kilogram, the price of coffee beans is 120-180 yuan / kg, which is relatively reasonable for the profit operation of the whole store.

If it is higher than 180 yuan, the affordability of the cafe will drop abruptly. The bean cost of about 4 yuan per cup, the milk price of 2.5 yuan, and the cost of more than 20% of the early warning line are no longer profitable. Therefore, coffee beans over 200 yuan / kg are naturally not competitive in price.

In addition, some baking suppliers offer a wide range of bean prices, such as a 50% discount for activities like Singles Day, which is usually at full price, and a 50% discount for small cafes is acceptable, but when buying at full price, profit margins are compressed and cafes can't afford it, so they turn to other roasters instead.

The sensitivity of small cafes to the price of beans, on the one hand, makes it random to buy beans and is unable to form a long-term and effective trust relationship with baking suppliers; on the other hand, the price pressure has also become an unspeakable "pain" for many small roasters supplied online.

Unlike lavazza, illy and other big brands have price protection mechanism, because they do not have brand advantages, online small baking suppliers are often restricted by the platform, in a weak position, do not have the initiative.

▲ offers discounts from time to time, which is difficult for small brands that sell beans.

For example, for activities such as Singles' Day, there is no decision on whether or not to participate in or a discount on participation.

"in fact, the big price fluctuations are all because our brand is small, and if we want to do activities, we have to listen to the e-commerce platform. We don't have any sales, and we lose money when we do it. Even if there is such a big price fluctuation, we grind our teeth and endure not much sales." A supplier revealed.

three

The pancakes in the market are getting bigger and bigger and need to be subdivided.

According to the report on Investment Analysis and Prospect of China's Coffee Industry from 2017 to 2021, China's coffee consumption is growing at an annual rate of 15% to 20%.

In the United States, cafes are more likely to choose beans baked by suppliers, and a few brand roasters provide almost all the coffee beans needed in the market. Small cafes also have endorsements from these well-known roasters.

After all, there are two sets of professional theories for roasting and making coffee. Professional things need professional people to do.

For example, in order to roast coffee beans, it is necessary not only to have a stable supply of raw beans, but also to have cup testing capacity, baking sites, relevant food safety permits and whether they can be well interpreted. And these are not what a boutique coffee shop and a small roaster can achieve.

▲ needs professional people to do professional things.

In the past, there was a saying in the domestic coffee industry: there are many people who do not understand coffee to open a coffee shop. Today, with the upgrading of consumption, the expansion of the middle class and the rise of the new generation, consumers are also gradually growing and mature.

The current situation of the domestic coffee industry and the rapid development of e-commerce provide a lot of development space for roasters. But there is also a problem that can not be ignored-food safety.

On the e-commerce platform, the control of food circulation is more and more stringent, but in the control of coffee beans, it is still in the stage of being ignored, but it is not difficult to judge: the future must be strictly regulated.

Wang Sen, founder of staggered coffee, believes that roasters will form a brand effect on the future e-commerce platform, during which several powerful supplier brands will emerge. At present, the bakeries that have obtained the QS certificate and other complete certificates for food circulation, which pay attention to quality and marketing have the opportunity to rise.

At present, although some boutique cafes have begun to bake their own beans, for more small and medium-sized cafes, the future will be mainly supplied by roasters. The industrial chain of this industry needs to integrate and optimize the ecology of the coffee industry, so as to promote the more benign development of the coffee industry.

According to Liu Rang, founder of Jean Coffee, roasting will also be one of its next main directions. "the pancakes in the coffee industry are getting bigger and bigger, but the market needs to be more subdivided. Customized baking is a direction. "