Today we visited two companies that produce gourmet coffee: Doka and Café Britt. The locals tend to drink Doka coffee, but not that of Café Britt. Why is this? It all has to do with the pricing of the coffee. Since Café Britt outsources all of their coffee beans, they only buy the highest quality beans to make the highest quality coffee. Thus, Café Britt coffee tends to be very expensive and is more of a souvenir than a local commodity. On the other hand, Doka grows all of their own coffee cherries. Although they work hard to ensure that most of the cherries are high quality, they are inevitably going to harvest a few that are not up to par. With this variety of coffee cherries, Doka produces three different qualities of coffee beans: grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3. Grade 1 is the most expensive because it uses the largest coffee cherries and is thus the highest quality. Grades 2 and 3 use the smaller coffee cherries and are thus lower quality and cheaper. Because Ticos do not drink expensive, gourmet coffee, Doka does not brew the grade 1 beans themselves and solely exports them. On the other hand, Doka roasts and brews grades 2 and 3 to sell in the local markets, which is what the Ticos like to buy.

Café Britt fits into the supply chain mainly as a manufacturer/distributor, whereas Doka is more of a supplier. When it comes to coffee, Café Britt buys premium coffee beans from a supplier and transforms them into gourmet coffee, which is then sold to their customers. Doka, on the other hand, grows the coffee cherries themselves and turns them into beans, which are then sold to manufacturers/distributors to be turned into coffee. However, Doka can also be seen as a manufacturer/distributor for the lower quality coffee they produce for the locals. Similarly, Café Britt can be seen as a supplier for its other products, since it has its own local chocolate factory and does not outsource for these materials.

Café Britt is a largely successful company, and much of this can be attributed to the company’s strategic planning. In essence, many of Café Britt’s international locations are in airports. With tourists as their main customers, this is smart planning because most tourists travel to new countries by plane. Café Britt also ensures that its airport shops are in locations with heavy foot traffic, even if it costs more to have them there. This is because most people simply go to their gates in airports rather than seeking out certain shops, so it is especially important to be in a busy location in order to get the most customers. Going forward, since Café Britt caters towards tourists, they plan to implement new locations in countries in which tourism is growing. These excellent planning tactics are a huge reason why Café Britt is so successful in its endeavors. As far as alternatives go, I do not think Café Britt needs to change any of its plans. However, I think it should add sustainability to its core values of growth, integrity, excellence, curiosity, and social awareness. As of right now, the company buys compensation for their carbon usage, but ideally they should work to go completely carbon neutral. Not only would this benefit the planet, but it would also get them more customers because people will be more inclined to buy goods from an eco-friendly company.