# Relationship advice



## Rebel Bean (Sep 10, 2009)

Hi all,

I am hoping for a little advice. I have been building my coffee company (supplying beans, training, servicing etc) for almost a year, covering the NE & Scotland.

I would like to see how well the coffee goes down in the South & thought the best way might be to partner up (hence the title







) with a company based down there.

Does anyone have any experience of similar business relationships? Is it a good way to go?

Any thoughts appreciated

Cheers

Chris


----------



## 5M Coffee (Jul 18, 2009)

With a number of companies subsidising the costs of a machine by tieing in the cafe owner to a certain bean supplier you may find the market difficult to crack.

That said, there are a large number of cafes with no such arrangements and some who use 'generic' blends with no distinguishable attributes (eg they just taste like coffee to most people).

These 'generic' blends often come at a low price point (£7/kg or less) so you may already be priced out of the market.

The key task will be to identify cafes with no tie-ins who are willing to spend more on their coffee, and convince them that by changing their blend (and upping their game through training / customer service & education) will result in higher profits.

Partnering with a catering supply company who supplies a cafes main kitchen equipment or ingredients is a step in the right direction.

A little footwork (local market research) in defined target areas will be required to find out who the audience is and then who their suppliers are.


----------

