It took quite a long time to get a decent photo of a butterfly in Britt’s butterfly garden, as the butterflies refused to sit still for more than a second. I have countless other pictures where finding the butterfly in the picture is akin to playing Where’s Waldo. The Spanish word for butterfly is mariposa, coming from the phrase “Maria, Pósate!”, más o menos meaning “Maria, Pause!” One can assume someone yelled this out, taking Saint Maria’s name in vain because the annoyingly elusive butterflies would take off before you could get a good glimpse of them.
Why mention butterflies in a post about the finances of Café Britt? Because the mariposa perfectly symbolizes why Britt is so successful: not ever sitting still. I have absolutely no issues with Café Britt’s plan for success because it exemplifies exactly what I admire in a business, which is the currently uncommon trait of expanding to unfamiliar territory. After seeing so many businesses fall behind because they will not adapt, seeing Britt constantly keep up with the times is so refreshing. Britt not only is expanding their amount of coffee roasts, but where they sell coffee, to whom they sell coffee, (I’ll do you one better, why they sell coffee), how they market themselves, with whom they market with, who they market to, etc. etc.
As for why Ticos don’t drink much Britt coffee, it is because of cultural caring of quality. In the United States, if someone was to eat rice and beans, there is a close to zero percent chance they would care at all about the quality of the rice and beans. In Costa Rica, they care about having good rice and beans. A lot. But what they don’t care about is coffee. I assume historically Costa Rica would export or be forced to export all their good coffee, leaving Costa Ricans with the less than good qualities. This led to a lack of care for sophistication in coffee and quality of coffee. Basically, to an American, rice and beans is rice and beans, and to a Tico, coffee is coffee.
Britt starts way higher up on the supply chain than Doka, roasting and up rather than doing everything below roasting too.
Oh, and as for why Britt sells so many shirts, it’s because they’re awesome.