Business plan for the KrasKof coffee roasting enterprise

* The calculations use average data for Russia

1. PROJECT SUMMARY

The goal of the project is to organize an enterprise for the industrial roasting of green coffee for the purpose of its subsequent sale through retail chains, HoReCa networks, mobile coffee shops, etc. The territorial location of the project is Krasnodar. The trademark of the project is “KrasKof”.

Recently, coffee has become an increasingly popular drink in Russia, and the culture of its consumption is steadily increasing. In this regard, there is a need for high quality coffee at an affordable price and with high logistics availability. It is also necessary to take into account that roasted coffee loses its taste over time, therefore, the fresher it is, the better. In this regard, it is advisable to create a local production for roasting coffee beans.

Table 1. Integral indicators of project effectiveness

Analysis of integral performance indicators, coupled with the prospect of its long-term implementation, shows a fairly high investment attractiveness of the project.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPANY AND INDUSTRY

Coffee is becoming an increasingly popular drink in Russia. At the same time, the coffee market in Russia is one of the smallest in volume, but the most dynamically developing. According to the analytical company Euromonitor International, coffee consumption in the United States in 2013 amounted to 1,323 tons, in Brazil - 1,174 tons, in Germany - 568 tons, and in Russia - only 221.7 tons. In 2014, coffee consumption in Russia increased approximately 6 times, reaching 68% of the total population. At the same time, between 2008 and 2013, coffee sales in Russia doubled.

Historically, instant coffee has been the most popular in Russia. Until 2010, its share was up to 85% of total consumption; however, in recent years the ratio has been changing and is expected to be 45/55% in favor of instant by 2018. The market volume will be 131,000 tons, according to Euromonitor International forecasts.

The shift in demand towards grain coffee occurs due to an increase in the culture of consumption, as well as due to the popularization of the drink due to the growth in the number of stationary and mobile coffee shops. The entry of large international chain coffee shops into the market is also partly affecting. The number of retail outlets selling coffee beans by weight is also increasing.

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Despite the relatively high cost of bean coffee, which is perhaps the highest in Europe, Russians are very loyal to the brands they are accustomed to and do not abandon them even with a further rise in price.

An analysis of the regional market (Krasnodar) shows that in the city there are 38 specialized coffee shops and 877 establishments where coffee is on the menu. Considering the city's population of 830 thousand people, the market for the product in question is quite wide.

According to RosIndex analytics, coffee is most often consumed by people aged 35-54 years, people with higher education or an academic degree, and Russians with high incomes. In addition, the popularity of drinking coffee is also growing among young people under the age of 35. Taking these data into account, we can say that Krasnodar is a highly adequate market for this project for a number of the following reasons. The city's population is constantly and steadily growing, unlike most Russian cities. According to RBC, in 2013 the city took first place in the all-Russian ranking of cities with the most growing business activity, which indicates a fairly high level of well-being of residents; Krasnodar has the lowest unemployment rate in the Southern Federal District. Krasnodar is the largest industrial and agricultural center.

All of these factors make the market in question extremely attractive for organizing a project. The essence of the project is the purchase of raw green coffee, its preparation and roasting, packaging and wholesale distribution. Project clients include:

HoReCa establishments – cafes (including coffee shops), restaurants, hotels;

Retail tea and coffee shops;

Mobile coffee shops;

Operators of vending coffee machines.

3. DESCRIPTION OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

The main product of the enterprise is roasted coffee beans. At the request of the customer it can be ground. The company packs both in standard own packages and in customer packages upon request.

Table 2. KrasKof coffee varieties

	Name	Description
		Botanical variety of Arabica variety. It has a clean, sweetish, pleasant aroma. The taste is sweetish-bitter, with a slight sourness and an oily consistency.
		A variety of Arabica. Refers to the highest grades of coffee. It has a subtle aroma and fruity tint. Balanced acidity
	Maragogyp	One of the varieties of Arabica. The taste is astringent and bitter, with subtle hints of wine. May have pronounced fruity and floral notes
	Colombia	Hybrid Catimor, bred in Colombia. High acidity and, at the same time, high sweetness, density and purity of the cup
		Basic Arabica variety. Features high cup quality, sweetness, purity and body

Since the quality of the final product is largely influenced by the quality of its roasting, KrasKof pays especially close attention to the operation of its frying machines (roasters), as well as the qualifications of their operators. Each of the offered varieties can be fried either using KrasKof’s own technology or according to the client’s recipe at the same wholesale cost of the product. In the first case, the manufacturer is entirely responsible for the quality of the product. In the second, the customer bears responsibility, which is reflected in the supply agreement.

The priority method of shipping finished products is self-pickup. In this case, shipment can be made within 1-2 business days after receiving the order. However, if necessary, the goods can be delivered by KrasKof sales representatives within 5 working days.

By default, KrasKof packages roasted coffee in bags with a capacity of 5 and 10 kg. At the customer's request, coffee can also be packaged in its branded containers of any size. The service is free. Also, at the customer’s request, coffee can be ground using an industrial coffee grinder. The cost of the service is 100 rubles. for 1 kg.

Table 3. Purchase and wholesale price of goods

4. SALES AND MARKETING

The main sales channels are given in Section 2 of this business plan. In Fig. Table 1 shows the estimated shares of each channel in the company’s total turnover.

Figure 1. Shares of distribution channels in the company’s turnover

Active market processing is carried out directly by the project owner and sales representative. The owner uses his own connections and acquaintances, and also joins in negotiations with key clients. A sales representative spends up to 70% of his working time on the road, conducting initial and ongoing negotiations with clients and potential clients.

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During the first year of the project, the client base is actively developing. In the future, the bulk of the client structure consists of loyal clients who do not require significant attention from the sales staff.

An order from a client is transferred to a sales specialist located directly in the office by means of a written application in person, by e-mail or fax. Payment terms are determined by the owner; for new clients this is 100% prepayment. Subsequently, discounts and deferred payment are possible.

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There are two competitors in the regional market offering similar products and services. The overlap of the assortment by variety is no more than 50%. The pricing policy of competitors is similar, therefore, at the initial stage of the project, a strategy of moderate dumping was chosen.

An important competitive advantage of KrasKof is the use of new high-quality roasting equipment from the market leader. This equipment allows you to achieve high quality of the finished product, as well as minimize the influence of the human factor during production. Competitors use used equipment from Russian and Chinese manufacturers.

The market does not have a pronounced seasonality. Coffee is consumed in any season. In summer, however, the market shows some decline due to the decline in popularity of hot drinks during the hot season. Still, cold drinks are also prepared based on coffee, and sales volumes of mobile coffee shops grow significantly in the summer. The sales plan takes into account all these factors.

5. PRODUCTION PLAN

The RosKof production site is located on the territory of an industrial complex on the southern outskirts of Krasnodar. The technology involves the use of natural gas, as a result of which the production premises are selected according to the presence of a gas main. The need for production space is 30 m2, for storage space – 40 m2.

The manufacturer and supplier of equipment is a large German company and a market leader. Despite the relatively high cost of the roaster (roasting unit), it has a number of undeniable advantages. Using gas, rather than electricity, as in most equipment on the market, allows you to achieve high quality roasting of beans, uniformity and dynamics. The roaster body is made of cast iron, which allows for high thermal inertia and significant durability of the unit. Ergonomic controls allow you to adjust the temperature if necessary.

The design of the roaster involves simultaneous roasting and cooling of beans, which significantly reduces the technological cycle time. Its duration is 15-18 minutes. After being removed from the roaster, the finished product is sent to the packaging area and then to the warehouse. An industrial coffee grinder is also located in the packaging area.

Since the process cycle is relatively short and the expected unit shipments are relatively small, there is no need for long-term production planning. Production is carried out in accordance with received orders. A certain quantity is produced to the warehouse in accordance with the general sales structure by grade.

6. ORGANIZATIONAL PLAN

The enterprise does not imply a complex organizational structure. Leadership functions are carried out directly by the project owner. All employees are also subordinated to the owner.

Market processing is carried out by a sales representative with a personal vehicle used for business purposes under a rental agreement. Also, as needed, the sales representative can deliver small orders to customers according to their own travel schedule. Applications from clients are accepted by a sales specialist, who issues invoices, controls their payment, and transfers applications to production.

Basic qualification requirements apply to the roaster operator. Since this niche is quite narrow, having experience working with a roster is not critical. Experience in production, preferably food production, as an equipment operator, a health certificate, responsibility, and absence of bad habits are important.

7. FINANCIAL PLAN

The financial plan is designed for five years and takes into account all possible influencing factors: seasonality, competition, sales structure, etc. All types of costs have been calculated. Variable costs (Table 3) refer to the purchase cost of raw materials. All other costs are classified as fixed costs. Depreciation is calculated on a straight-line basis over a period of 5 years.

Total investment costs are 4.3 million rubles, of which the entrepreneur’s own funds are 1.0 million rubles. The remaining amount is raised in the form of a bank loan for a period of 36 months. The loan is repaid in annuity payments, with a credit holiday of three months.

Table 4. Investment costs

	NAME	AMOUNT, rub.
Real estate
	Warehouse and office equipment
Equipment
	Equipment set
Working capital
	Working capital
	Purchase of raw materials
		4 300 000
Own funds:		1 000 000,00
Required borrowings:		3 300 000
Bid:		18,00%
Duration, months:

Table 5. Fixed costs

№	NAME	AMOUNT PER MONTH, RUR.
	Rent
	Communal payments

Entrepreneurs Ilya Savinov and Alexey German roasted and ground coffee for connoisseurs in 2014 for 42.5 million rubles.

​The idea to create a coffee startup came to friends Ilya Savinov and Alexey German in February 2011. The first one was already working in the coffee industry at that time: his father Andrey Savinov is the main shareholder of the SFT Trading holding, the second largest importer of green coffee to Russia. During his time working in the family business, Savinov discovered a lot of shortcomings in the logistics of roasters - companies that purchase green coffee from importers and sell it to consumers. “They buy and roast coffee, keep it roasted, waiting for orders to come to them, or send it to stores where it rots on the shelves, and in the end the buyer receives a pack of “freshly roasted” coffee six months ago,” explains Savinov in an interview with RBC “We thought: why can’t we shorten this chain?”

Work for a cup of coffee​

The founders of Torrefacto decided to roast coffee every day, so that no more than 48 hours would pass from the moment of order to its delivery. In May 2011, Savinov became an individual entrepreneur and used his personal savings - 300 thousand rubles. - for the purchase in China of a minimum quantity (15 thousand) of black bags for packaging coffee, as well as for the development of a convenient website with a payment system. At the same time, professional roaster Sergei Tabera, who had a small business repairing coffee machines, joined the founders.

In November 2011, Torrefacto launched: its first clients, in addition to the friends of the founders, were visitors to the forum of professionals and coffee lovers Prokofe.ru. Orders began to pour in, but fulfilling them required more effort than Torrefacto's founders expected. In order to have time to roast and package the coffee, they had to meet at 6 a.m. before each went to their main jobs. In the hope of quickly recouping expenses, Herman suggested raising prices - they say, the service is exclusive, we fry especially for people. But the markup of 200–250% restrained the growth in the number of orders. In the first month, entrepreneurs earned 10 thousand rubles. “Everything was based on enthusiasm. We worked for a cup of coffee,” recalls German.

By the end of the third week of morning roasting, the entrepreneurs' enthusiasm had diminished slightly. And three months later, Savinov and German decided to halve prices and roast once a week. “And that’s when it all started!” recalls Savinov.

Business model

By going to the Torrefacto website, the client can order one or more of 30–40 types of coffee, select the grind (from the finest, for preparation in a Turk, to coarse - in a French press), indicate the volume of the package - 150 g or 450 g, and also payment and delivery method. Each of the varieties has a detailed description - almost all of them are written personally by Savinov, indicating the country where the coffee came from, describing the shades of taste and suitable brewing methods.

Since Torrefacto's idea is to deliver the freshest possible product to the customer, its founders roast each batch strictly to order, without storing roasted coffee in a warehouse. Torrefacto does not have a warehouse as such - about a ton of green coffee is stored in a small room at the carpet factory in Kotelniki, orders for which are placed with SFT Trading within a week. The company now processes 350–400 orders per week, roasting 700–800 kg of coffee every Friday.

With the growing number of orders, the business required serious investments - in particular, in professional equipment for roasting and grinding. Firstly, the bar coffee grinders that Torrefacto used at the initial stage quickly became unusable. I had to splurge on two Swiss coffee grinders at a price of about 250 thousand rubles. for each one to solve the problems once and for all. “There’s a lifetime warranty on the grinders, it’s like the Lamborghini of coffee grinders,” explains Herman. Secondly, the company purchased used Serbian roasters for roasting coffee - each of the two machines cost 0.5 million rubles.

However, all these investments almost turned out to be useless: the fall in the ruble exchange rate in December 2014 sent the business into the red. Then the founders of Torrefacto decided to switch to floating prices linked to the dollar exchange rate from December 6, 2014.

Torrefacto's monthly revenue fluctuates with the dollar exchange rate: for example, in March it amounted to about 4 million rubles. Almost half of all project expenses are the purchase of green coffee (1.6 million rubles). The site also requires investment: in February 2015, its support cost 90 thousand rubles, entrepreneurs say (the site is supported and developed by an external programmer from Voronezh, working on outsourcing). 860 thousand rubles. per month is spent on employee salaries: now Torrefacto, in addition to the founders, employs three more people who advise clients, manage social networks and resolve current issues. Torrefacto pays taxes according to a simplified system - quarterly it gives the state 6% of its income, that is, about 800 thousand rubles. As a result, the project brings the founders about 220 thousand rubles. per month.

There are 6 thousand people registered on the Torrefacto website who have placed an order at least once, with three quarters of them returning for at least a second order. And this is far from the limit, says Savinov. According to him, Torrefacto is ready to increase its roasting volume by 5-10 times only with the current equipment and space. “A person can drink 1 kg of coffee in a month. We only need 5,000 regular customers to grow five times - this is not much for a multimillion-dollar city,” he is sure.

“I didn’t even bring up the conversation about preferences”

Torrefacto’s business model is not unique: according to Andrey Elson, CEO of the largest Russian importer of green coffee, KLD Coffee Importers, there are about two hundred coffee roasters working in Russia. Most of them work in the b2b segment - they sell coffee primarily to coffee shops and restaurants, and sometimes to stores. In this regard, Torrefacto is perhaps the only successful company that sells coffee only directly to consumers.

Many companies, like Torrefacto, that worked mainly with individuals, for example, “Roasting Coffee” and the Cherny cooperative, were forced to stop selling coffee by subscription this winter - it became unprofitable, Artem Temirov, founder of the Cherny cooperative, told RBC. According to the founder of the coffee startup Camera Obscura, Nikolai Chistyakov, he sells 95% of his coffee to organizations and only about 50 kg per week is bought by individual users through the website. Torrefacto competes with the Doubleby coffee chain, which recently launched online coffee sales. However, according to a company representative, so far only a quarter of the total volume of Doubleby roasting is spent on sales through the website - about 300 kg per week.

Some market participants suggest that Torrefacto's connection with SFT Trading, thanks to which the company has unhindered access to green coffee, helps it survive in times of crisis. However, according to Savinov, Torrefacto works with SFT Trading on the same terms as all other roasters: it purchases coffee from the importer at dollar prices and pays bills in rubles at the exchange rate on the day of payment with a two-week deferment. “I never even raised the possibility of us enjoying any preferences,” he notes.

Entrepreneurs Ilya Savinov and Alexey German roasted and ground coffee for connoisseurs in 2014 for 42.5 million rubles.

Entrepreneurs Ilya Savinov, Alexey German and Sergey Tabera

​The idea to create a coffee startup came to friends Ilya Savinov and Alexey German in February 2011. The first one was already working in the coffee industry at that time: his father Andrey Savinov is the main shareholder of the SFT Trading holding, the second largest importer of green coffee to Russia. During his time working in the family business, Savinov discovered a lot of shortcomings in the logistics of roasters - companies that buy green coffee from importers and sell it to consumers. “They buy and roast coffee, keep it roasted, waiting for orders to come to them, or send it to stores where it rots on the shelves, and in the end the buyer receives a pack of “freshly roasted” coffee six months ago,” Savinov explains in an interview with RBC . “We thought: why can’t we shorten this chain?”

Work for a cup of coffee

The founders of Torrefacto decided to roast coffee every day, so that no more than 48 hours would pass from the moment of order to its delivery. In May 2011, Savinov became an individual entrepreneur and used his personal savings - 300 thousand rubles. — for the purchase in China of a minimum quantity (15 thousand) of black bags for packaging coffee, as well as for the development of a convenient website with a payment system. At the same time, professional roaster Sergei Tabera, who had a small business repairing coffee machines, joined the founders.

In November 2011, Torrefacto launched: its first clients, in addition to the friends of the founders, were visitors to the forum of professionals and coffee lovers Prokofe.ru. Orders began to pour in, but fulfilling them required more effort than Torrefacto's founders expected. In order to have time to roast and package the coffee, they had to meet at 6 a.m. before each went to their main jobs. In the hope of quickly recouping expenses, Herman suggested raising prices - they say, the service is exclusive, we fry especially for people. But the markup of 200-250% restrained the growth in the number of orders. In the first month, entrepreneurs earned 10 thousand rubles. “Everything was based on enthusiasm. We worked for a cup of coffee,” recalls German.

By the end of the third week of morning roasting, the entrepreneurs' enthusiasm had diminished slightly. And three months later, Savinov and German decided to halve prices and roast once a week. “And that’s when it all started!” - recalls Savinov.

How does Torrefacto work?

Torrefacto accepts orders for coffee throughout the week - until 20:00 Friday. After this, the green coffee is sent to Sergei Tabera, who roasts it on the night from Friday to Saturday. At the same time, orders are registered with delivery services (Pony Express, PickPoint and Axiomus). Roasted coffee is placed in paper bags, loaded into a car in the morning and taken to the packaging room, where it is ground and packaged with special machines. Then the barcodes received from the delivery services are affixed, after which the orders are transferred for delivery.

Business model

By going to the Torrefacto website, the client can order one or more of 30-40 types of coffee, select the grind (from the finest, for preparation in a Turk, to coarse - in a French press), indicate the volume of the package - 150 g or 450 g, and also payment and delivery method. Each of the varieties has a detailed description - almost all of them are written personally by Savinov, indicating the country where the coffee came from, describing the shades of taste and suitable brewing methods.

Since Torrefacto's idea is to deliver the freshest possible product to the customer, its founders roast each batch strictly to order, without storing roasted coffee in a warehouse. Torrefacto does not have a warehouse as such - about a ton of green coffee is stored in a small room at the carpet factory in Kotelniki, orders for which are placed with SFT Trading within a week. The company now processes 350-400 orders a week, roasting 700-800 kg of coffee every Friday.

By going to the Torrefacto website, the client can order one or more of 30–40 types of coffee, select the grind (from the finest, for preparation in a Turk, to coarse - in a French press) and indicate the volume of the package - 150 g or 450 g (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina / RBC)

With the growing number of orders, the business required serious investments - in particular, in professional equipment for roasting and grinding. Firstly, the bar coffee grinders that Torrefacto used at the initial stage quickly became unusable. I had to splurge on two Swiss coffee grinders at a price of about 250 thousand rubles. for each one to solve the problems once and for all. “There’s a lifetime warranty on the grinders, it’s like the Lamborghini of coffee grinders,” explains Herman. Secondly, the company purchased used Serbian roasters for roasting coffee - each of the two machines cost 0.5 million rubles.

However, all these investments almost turned out to be useless: the fall in the ruble exchange rate in December 2014 sent the business into the red. Then the founders of Torrefacto decided to switch to floating prices linked to the dollar exchange rate from December 6, 2014.

Torrefacto's monthly revenue fluctuates with the dollar exchange rate: for example, in March it amounted to about 4 million rubles. Almost half of all project expenses are the purchase of green coffee (RUB 1.6 million). The site also requires investment: in February 2015, its support cost 90 thousand rubles, entrepreneurs say (the site is supported and developed by an external programmer from Voronezh, working on outsourcing). 860 thousand rubles. per month is spent on employee salaries: now Torrefacto, in addition to the founders, employs three more people who advise clients, manage social networks and resolve current issues. Torrefacto pays taxes according to a simplified system - quarterly it gives the state 6% of its income, that is, about 800 thousand rubles. As a result, the project brings the founders about 220 thousand rubles. per month.

The company now processes 350–400 orders per week, roasting 700–800 kg of coffee every Friday (Photo: Ekaterina Kuzmina / RBC)

There are 6 thousand people registered on the Torrefacto website who have placed an order at least once, with three quarters of them returning for at least a second order. And this is far from the limit, says Savinov. According to him, Torrefacto is ready to increase the roasting volume by 5-10 times only with the current equipment and space. “A person is able to drink 1 kg of coffee in a month. We only need 5,000 regular customers to grow five times, which is not much for a multimillion-dollar city,” he is confident.

Torrefacto in numbers

6 thousand clients registered on the site

42.5 million rubles. the company gained in 2014

800 kg coffee Torrefacto sells per week

16% is the average roasting temperature of coffee

100% is the average trade margin

Whether you are a beginner entrepreneur who dreams of quickly leaving “working for your uncle” or an already experienced one who has exhausted the possibilities of your current business - now you are faced with an important choice, you need a good working business idea. What business should I start, what should I invest my time and money in? If so, we have something to offer you in this article, read on.

Reality is no longer the same as in the 90s, when you could take on any direction and with a high degree of probability success awaited you; it is saturated with goods, services and numerous competitors:-(Therefore, the question of choosing an idea for a future business will have to be reduced to a search or completely a new, or not yet competitive, but developing niche in the market in which you can succeed.

One of these promising profitable niches today is production of high quality freshly roasted coffee(Mini roasteries). Originating (as often happens) abroad among “third wave” coffee makers, coffee roasting is now becoming in demand in Russia. Coffee is an amazing product that, according to statistics, ranks second in the world in terms of consumption, right after oil. Without a fragrant cup of this “dark elixir” in the morning, during a break from tiring work or after lunch, humanity can no longer imagine its life.

It is believed that Russia is traditionally a “tea” country, but looking at the ever-increasing number of coffee shops, the abundance of tea and coffee shops, the obligatory presence of coffee machines in the kitchens of offices and apartments, I don’t think you will make such a conclusion. Experts are unanimous - our consumption of coffee beans is increasing every year.. That is, the sales market is growing :-) The only thing that consumers are sorely lacking for a consumer boom to begin is the main thing - a variety of good, freshly roasted coffee!

“Isn’t there enough bean coffee in Russia? Look at the shelves of any supermarket, and there are plenty of different brands of imported coffee on the Internet!” - you will say and you will be completely wrong. Do not confuse supermarket coffee (or imported coffee that has come a long way to us) that has been roasted for a long time, which means it is already “stale” and has lost all its taste and aroma, with the freshest coffee beans, lovingly prepared by a master roaster in a coffee roaster. However, personal experience is better than any words, you just have to try properly prepared, high-quality coffee from freshly roasted beans and all your doubts will immediately disappear :-) As we have written several times on this site - it’s all about freshness!

Let’s leave the “lyrics” aside, because we are talking about coffee production as a profitable business idea and move on to the facts and clear answers to specific questions that concern you:

Q: Who is the potential consumer of the products of such a mini-roastery for roasting coffee?

A: Coffee machine lessors, tea and coffee shops, coffee machine vendors, coffee shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. Retail consumer when trading via the Internet.

Q: What are the selling points of a coffee business?

A: Fast cycle to obtain the finished product, a batch of green grains is roasted in 10-15 minutes!

High productivity of the roasting roaster, even a model with a maximum batch load of 1 kg roasts up to 700 kg per working month (22 working days x 8 hours per shift)!

The equipment pays off quickly; when fully loaded, it takes no more than 3 months!

High margin (profitability) - the difference in the cost of green and roasted grains in small wholesale reaches 100%!

Q: What does it take to start this profitable and promising business?

A: Purchase a roaster for roasting coffee beans, as well as the necessary knowledge and skills to work with it.

Detailed information, miscalculations of organization and payback of this business idea are not the subject of this article. We just want to draw your close attention to yet unoccupied promising idea for a business on the market- production of freshly roasted coffee beans. This business is interesting, profitable and also delicious! With roasters for roasting coffee, and we are waiting for your questions by email :-)

Having your own coffee roaster is always profitable!

In a black, black city, within four black walls, black, black boys in fezzes roast black, black coffee! This is how, according to the plan, this story was supposed to begin - about one of the largest roasting shops in the Urals, which was opened by the owners of a coffee shop. And although not everything turned out the way we imagined, we still decided to tell this story.

We were met by the co-owner of Coffee Project. This time it was not us who started with the questions - he asked what kind of coffee we would like. And then for a long time he was surprised that it was not cappuccino, but Americano: “The locomotive of all coffee shops is cappuccino. It accounts for approximately 70% of all orders. Everyone drinks cappuccino!” - he explains. Moreover, according to him, there is also a certain seasonality in this business: in winter they drink less coffee, and in the spring the volume of consumption increases sharply and does not subside until the first cold weather.

“Coffee is a social drink,” says Ufimtsev. - When it’s warm outside, people want to walk, hang out, chat over a cup of coffee. And in winter they want to eat mostly (which we can sense from the busyness of the kitchen).”

It is interesting that in the ranking of the Expert-Ural analytical center compiled last year, Yekaterinburg was in first place in terms of the number of coffee shops per capita - there were 11.4 establishments per 100 thousand people. Perm was in second place (10.7), and St. Petersburg was in third (9.7). Moscow and Novosibirsk closed the top five with an indicator of 7.7. But if last year, according to this rating, 163 establishments of this format operated in Yekaterinburg, today the 2GIS directory returns 277 positions for the request “coffee shop.” For comparison: in Perm - 155, Chelyabinsk - 111, Tyumen - 96.

It is not surprising that most of the grain that is prepared in the Coffee Project workshop remains in Yekaterinburg.

“Let's segment it,” suggests Pavel. - Now we supply coffee to establishments in the economy segment (this is the main consumer), plus to coffee-to-go outlets, which consume beans 20 times more than any restaurant. And our clients are coffee shops of the same format as Coffee Project, where consumption is also quite high.”

Fried facts

The entrepreneur says that the roasting shop appeared in his plans almost simultaneously with the idea of ​​opening a coffee shop, since the quality of the grain on the market did not always correspond to his ideas of beauty. “The grain was overcooked, old, tasteless,” he says.

He launched the coffee shop together with his sister Alexandra four years ago in the Suvorov business center, and a year later a grain roasting workshop was opened in Bolshoi Istok. However, due to the fact that travel took an prohibitively long time, very soon a new premises had to be found for production. Now the workshop operates in the center, not far from Suvorov, and its two full-time roasters roast four tons of grain monthly (of which approximately 300-400 kg goes to Coffee Project’s own needs). In addition to Yekaterinburg, roasting establishments buy it from Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Omsk and other Russian cities. In addition, part of the products goes to Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, the company has another move on the horizon: plans to increase the volume to 7-8 tons of roasted grain per month. The new workshop is also required due to the company’s big plans to increase b2c sales. It took a long time to get around to this direction: there was neither time nor energy, but now Ufimtsev has come to grips with an online store through which private clients can order freshly roasted grain.

“Many roasters tried to establish such a sales channel, but almost no one succeeded,” says the entrepreneur. “The only company for which this works well is the Moscow company Torrefacto.”

He has no doubt that his own project will also take off. According to him, people have tried and loved quality coffee and now want to drink it at home. He is not ready to talk about numbers yet, but he assures that the growth is very good and there is demand from the market. Thus, for 2017, Coffee Project has “grand plans to reach the end consumer.” Moreover, the focus is only on online sales: Ufimtsev does not intend to enter retail chains. Several years ago, he tried to scout out the situation and came to the conclusion that it would not satisfy the appetites of retailers (the price tag for presence on the shelf starts at 50 thousand rubles, but he believes that this money would be better spent on improving quality and marketing). And the packages themselves from the store counter will not tell you about the merits of the contents.

In short, Pavel Ufimtsev is now looking for a suitable premises to expand the area of ​​the roasting shop and the material and technical base. And since we are talking about material things, we ask him about the amount of investment in such a workshop. He says that a lot of money will be required, and the main expense item will be equipment. “A good roaster costs between 30 thousand and 70 thousand euros,” he says. “You can also buy something made in Russia, but your clients probably won’t appreciate it.” True, in order for the workshop to operate successfully, money alone cannot do it: you also need a suitcase of knowledge and competencies, and Coffee Project is very proud of this baggage.

Spin the reel

Roaster-master Alexey Platonov introduces us to the contents of this suitcase. It shows which processes have been automated (for example, the roaster runs on special software), and which cannot be trusted to the machine (for example, each batch of green grain passes through the hands of the roaster - he checks whether the raw materials were stored and transported correctly and whether there is any debris in it) .

Roaster-master Alexey Platonov

In addition, the production has introduced its own know-how - the so-called “coffee passports”. Essentially, these are technological maps consisting of many parameters:

“Coffee is an agricultural product and it can change from season to season. To ensure that the resulting roasted beans are of consistent quality, we have developed a coffee passport, which includes the classification and brand of raw materials and how we roast this coffee (temperature, time). Plus, it includes organoleptic characteristics,” talking about this, Alexey picks up the small jars in which the roasted grain is stored: these are control samples against which the roaster-master checks the color of the newly prepared batch.

Alexey also talks about the many nuances of roasting. For example, that during its stay in the roaster drum (a 15 kg batch is roasted for 8-15 minutes), the grain goes through three stages: first it is dried, and then the Maillard reaction starts when essential oils begin to be released from the grain. The final stage is caramelization, during which the grain pops like popcorn. During the frying process, the raw material loses about 15% of moisture and increases by 70% in size. Depending on the type of coffee and the level of roasting, the temperature is selected: it can vary from 195 to 250 degrees.

Interestingly, freshly roasted beans do not smell like coffee. According to Platonov, it smells like broth or buns, but it acquires that characteristic aroma, for which everything was started, only after a day. The taste and aroma of coffee are most fully revealed on days 3-4 and are stored in the beans for two weeks. Despite the fact that according to GOST, coffee can be stored for a year and a half, after a month the beans lose half of their quality, after six months the varieties cannot be distinguished from each other, and after a year, grain coffee cannot be distinguished from instant coffee at all.

Crisis to the rescue

Now Coffee Project purchases green beans from a large federal importer (producers: Colombia, Ethiopia, Honduras, etc.) and plans to enter direct supplies from European suppliers in order to bring micro-lots (rare, terroir, varieties with a bright taste). The cost of a kilogram of such raw materials starts from 1 thousand rubles and reaches 10 thousand rubles.

We are offered to try one of these varieties, Colombia Luis Carlos Guzman, and they tell us that during tastings it is customary to take coffee from a spoon and suck it in with a loud slurp - this opens up all the taste buds in the mouth. In the Coffee Project roasting shop, such tastings (or cuppings) are held regularly - they are attended by guests of the coffee shop and customers purchasing grain. Courses and master classes are also held here for baristas - their own and everyone else. The grain that is not included in the passport is used for educational purposes.

Mr. Ufimtsev notes that the crisis greatly helped Russian roasters, since Italy, which had become unprofitable, left the market. Among his competitors, he singles out companies from Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Moscow, but says that in general the market has become more open - in the sense that before no one communicated with anyone, for fear of dropping something unnecessary, but now everyone is ready to share their best practices . This was shown, in particular, by the latest PIR festival.

“Now we have quite favorable pricing,” he says. “On average, a kilogram of roasted coffee (that’s about 100 cups of cappuccino - editor’s note) costs about 1 thousand rubles wholesale, and 1,400 rubles at retail.” No one is dumping on the market: players are trying to compete on the basis of quality and positioning (in which Moscow excels, since some companies from the regions order there only because it is the capital).

For our part, we would like to separately emphasize: we did not find a single dark-skinned boy in the Coffee Project roasting shop. But only black walls, black grains and bright people in all respects.