It will be the first time that Brazil will hardly pass from a producing country to a breeder of trends in the market for specialty coffees.
After a few months of the series A investment round worth R$ 28 million, The Coffee, @thecoffee, a network of coffee shops in Curitiba created in 2018, announces the opening of its own stores and franchises throughout Europe. “A second round of fundraising will take place in 2022 by means of a North American venture capital and it will enable a more rapid and consistent growth of the network,” explains Alexandre Fertonani, co-founder of the company, together with his two other brothers, Carlos and Luís Fertonani.
The first European countries to receive The Coffee are Portugal, Spain, France and Hungary. “By the end of this year, two stores will be opened in Lisbon, one in Barcelona and one in Valencia, in Spain, one in Budapest, in Hungary, and one in Paris, in France,” says Alexandre. The format will be hybrid, that is, about 20% will be owned stores and 80% will be franchisees, who will pay 50 thousand euros to open a franchise, on average.
Evolution
The networtk was created after a trip by the brothers to Japan, who were inspired by the local culture to bring a minimalist architecture to the stores and the smart use of technology combined with service, giving a sense of modernity to the stores. “We started unpretentiously. I confess that the quality of the coffee was not our main concern, as we used the gourmet. Over time, we gained traction, perfected ourselves and realized that it would be necessary to make this transition, converting to the world of specialty coffees, and it was the right decision we made,” he says.
“All units in Brazil work with our coffees – selected by a coffee hunter – from farms in the states of Minas Gerais and Paraná. We built a roasting center made especially for this,” he says. Currently, The Coffee offers three different coffees: white, combat, a blend used in the espresso machine, craft and black, more complex, for the strained ones.
For stores in Europe, they set up a headquarters in Lisbon, with a logistics and roasting center, to supply stores on the Old Continent. “We hired an independent Portuguese roasting professional who receives the green beans from Brazil, who roasts them according to our curve, in a standardized way. “It’s the same grain, the same curve, the same roast for all coffee shops,” he explains.
International appeal
From the beginning, when they created the brand, the brothers had in mind a network of coffee shops that could operate on all continents and that spoke to this globalized world. “All the major international coffee chains, until now, have not chosen to work with specialty, more elaborate and higher quality coffees. They always paid more attention to accompaniments such as sweets, breads and cakes themselves. We came to break this logic and it is working so well that we have already been approached by an American venture capital to receive a second investment, as they know of the growth potential of specialty coffee cafeterias in the world. The brand is already registered in Europe and Colombia; in the US, it is in the process of being finalized as well as in Brazil,” he explains.
It will be the first time that the world has witnessed the entry of a chain of Brazilian coffee shops into other markets and, thanks to the volume, the intention is to exert a certain influence on the taste and way of drinking specialty coffee. “Until now, the producer market has always surrendered to the tastes of the consumer market. We’ll see if we can break this very perverse logic,” says Alexandre.
Besides to go coffees, The Coffee is preparing the launch of cold brew cans. The plans for opening stores in Asia will be implemented later on. “There is a language barrier and the fact that we are talking about very different cultures. But we’ll get there too,” he concludes.
The Coffee
- More than 160 stores opened by December 2021
- Revenue expectation – R$25 million
- New stores in: Dublin (Ireland) and Rome (Italy) in addition to those mentioned in the text
