Is a Starbucks down the street a death knell for independent cafes? Not always. Plus, multinational roasters are buying more sustainable coffee than ever before, and the Starbucks union strike goes international.
‘GCP: 75% of Coffee from 11 Major Buyers Meets Some Sustainability Mark’ – via Daily Coffee News
A small number of large companies dominate the coffee industry: in 2020, the Coffee Barometer report found that 10 multinational roasters are responsible for 35% of all green coffee purchases.
According to the Global Coffee Platform (GCP), these large companies are buying more sustainably sourced coffee each year. Since 2018, GCP has gathered voluntary purchasing data from multinational roasters. In 2021, 55% of purchases met some sustainability standard; in the most recent report, that number rose to 75%.
The 2024 report featured data from 11 major roasters—JDE Peet’s, Julius Meinl, Keurig Dr Pepper, Melitta Group, Mother Parkers, Nestlé, Supracafé, Taylors of Harrogate, TESCO, UCC, and Westrock Coffee Company—up from eight in 2021.
Together, the 11 companies purchased around 38.4 million 60-kilo bags of green coffee, 29 million of which GCP considered sustainable. Those sustainable purchases equaled 21% of all global green coffee exports in 2023/24, GCP reported.
But what makes a coffee sustainable? GCP recognizes several programs that meet its baseline for sustainability practices. These include third-party certifications such as Fairtrade or Rainforest Alliance, as well as an increasing number of in-house schemes from companies like Nespresso and Neumann Kaffee Gruppe.
The total number of GCP-recognized sustainability initiatives rose from 12 in 2021 to 26 last year, with the majority being private programs. In 2023, the Coffee Barometer reported that “little detail is known about the specific sustainability strategies of the major coffee roasters.”
The Coffee Barometer’s Coffee Brew Index, which assessed the various companies’ sustainability schemes, found that many were “characterized by a lack of transparency, adequate funding, and fair compensation for the sustainable endeavors of small-scale farmers.”
“As a coffee community, we must keep evaluating the positive impact our investments and actions have on farmers and the environment,” said GCP executive director Annette Pensel in an announcement. Pensel also applauded the companies involved and encouraged more to participate in future reports. “Now is the time to enhance collaboration to further align our measurement and investment efforts.”
Read the full story on the sustainability sales here.
‘The Little California Coffee Shop Crushing Starbucks, One Latte at a Time’ – via SF Gate
You would think that running a cafe near an outpost of the biggest coffee chain in the world is a bad idea. In fact, over the years, many independent coffee shops have viewed the arrival of a Starbucks near their shop as a potential death knell for their business.
But one coffee shop in a small town near San Francisco is thriving—with a Starbucks just 75 feet down the street and another two blocks away.
The Groovy Goose opened in 2023 in San Carlos, California, with the express intention of doing things differently from its corporate competition. “I know I have a better product,” co-owner Nathan Conte told Grant Marek from SF Gate. “I don’t use cheap beans, and I treat my staff better.”
The Starbucks up the street has been there for thirty years, but Marek writes that it is now “a ghost town” with “more to-go orders at the counter than actual people.”
The lack of customers hanging out is something the chain is trying to address as part of CEO Brian Niccol’s ongoing “Back to Starbucks” reinvention plan. Years of prioritizing convenience had led to falling sales, upset customers, and worker unrest. Now, Niccol is trying to revert the brand to its coffeehouse roots. So far, it hasn’t worked, with recent data showing that customers still aren’t lingering, despite adding couches and other measures intended to encourage people to stay awhile.
Groovy Goose, on the other hand, doesn’t have this problem. When Marek visits, “Every table inside and out of the shoebox-sized coffee shop is filled.”
Although coffee shop owners may fear a Starbucks nearby, research shows that a neighborhood with one of the chain’s locations sees a boost in local entrepreneurship. A 2007 article by Taylor Clark in Slate found that, despite the coffee giant often actively trying to undercut and oust its local competitors, a nearby Starbucks positively benefited independent cafes.
Groovy Goose owner Conte doesn’t mind his neighbor’s proximity. “Starbucks can be in that corner over there,” he says. “I got nothing against those people working there. I love them, they’re human beings, they’re worth the love. But personally, I’m not going to go in there. It’s a choice I appreciate other people are making as well.”
Read more on the Starbucks-subduing coffee shop here.
‘Bill Kennedy, San Franciscan Roaster Owner and Educator, Dies’ – via Daily Coffee News
Bill Kennedy, president and CEO of San Franciscan Roaster Co. and a longtime coffee educator, passed away last week.
“The loss of Bill is beyond words,” the company wrote in an announcement on social media. “He was not only a leader in our industry, but a true legend. His passion, craftsmanship and deep knowledge shaped countless roasters and coffee companies — our own included.”
After two decades working in public education, Kennedy took over running the Carson City, Nevada-based roaster manufacturer San Franciscan in 2008. In addition to growing the business and hosting the Coffee Roasting Legends podcast, he used his background in education to continue mentoring and inspiring the next generation of coffee professionals. “He had a rare gift for teaching, whether it was the art of roasting or a lesson pulled from history, always shared with warmth, curiosity, and purpose,” the company wrote.
Kennedy’s legacy is evident in the outpouring of condolences from the coffee industry. On Facebook and Instagram, people shared messages of support and memories of Kennedy’s impact on their lives and careers. “His relentless support of the industry and his pursuit to help anyone and everyone will be his lasting legacy,” Roast magazine founder and publisher Connie Blumhardt told Daily Coffee News.
San Franciscan said that “we will honor his life by carrying on what he built—continuing to craft artisan roasters as he would expect.”
Read the full article on Kennedy’s life and legacy here.
More News
‘Raw Material Coffee Launches Phase Two of Its 11 Million Trees Program via a Kickstarter Campaign’ – via Communicaffe
‘Indonesia’s Aceh Families Struggle As Floods Leave Villages in Ruins’ – via Al Jazeera
‘Terroir At 35,000 Feet: An In-Flight Coffee Nightmare’ – via Sprudge
‘Caffe Luxxe Acquired by Sugarfina in $24.5 Million Stock Deal’ – via Daily Coffee News
‘East Asia Coffee Chain Market Booms As Powerhouse China Adds 20,000 Stores in a Year’ – via World Coffee Portal
The Week in Coffee Unionizing
The Starbucks Workers United strike has expanded further as it passes the one-month point, becoming the longest work stoppage in the chain’s history.
On Thursday, the strike spread to include nearly 4,000 baristas at over 180 stores across 130 cities, the union said. Starbucks continues to insist that the walkout is having little impact on its business.
On Wednesday, Starbucks workers and union members in 10 countries around the world held protests in solidarity with the striking union. Organizers held rallies at Starbucks cafes and offices in Australia, the U.K., Brazil, Canada, Turkey, and Germany, among others.
In a separate action, workers at a franchised Starbucks store inside a hotel in Glasgow, Scotland, became the first of the chain’s U.K. workers to ever go on strike in late November. Stella Small, the store’s lead union representative, told The National that the hotel “benefits from Starbucks’ existing customer base” but “they pay their workers the lowest wage out of any franchised Starbucks.”
Away from Starbucks, on Dec. 7, the owner of Vermont-based Black Cap Coffee announced that it would close its Burlington location. In a Facebook post, owner Laura Vilalta cited declining sales as the reason for closing due to a dip in Canadian tourism. She also wrote of “social issues,” including “an opioid epidemic that is impacting many Burlington businesses and is devastating lives.”
The Burlington cafe is the only one of Black Cap’s four locations to be unionized. Organizers had been in contract negotiations with ownership for nine months. On Dec. 5, the union filed unfair labor practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that management was engaging in bad-faith bargaining. The next day, workers went on strike.
While Vilalta insisted that the closure has nothing to do with the union, organizers aren’t so sure. “The timing of this is really suspicious,” said Ben Habel, a union member and senior baker at Black Cap, in a press release.
Beyond the Headlines
‘Is Hotel Coffee Finally Getting Better?’ by Jenn Chen
‘The Screwy New World of Cranked and Geared Espresso’ by Howard Bryman
‘From Bean to Cup, Colombian Women Are Taking On the Coffee Patriarchy’ by Oscar Medina
