Pacific coffee making inroads at London’s Caffe Culture

Pacific island coffee was introduced to the UK café industry at the Caffe Culture trade event in London this year and they loved it!

The initiative was led by Pacific Trade Invest (PTI) Europe’s Trade Promotion Adviser Robyn Ekstrom who supported two established Pacific Island coffee producer brands in launching their products in the United Kingdom and European coffee markets.

One company was invited to tender for a catering and retail services company provider to leading global airlines and the other securing a UK agent/distributor and follow up contacts.

Banz Kofi Fektori of Papua New Guinea and Tanna Coffee of Vanuatu displayed their value-added product ranges at the Caffe Culture trade event at Olympia, London from May 22- 24.

The Caffe Culture Show is the leading business-only event for the United Kingdom specifically targeted at the café industry.  For over ten years, this event has been consistently at the forefront of an evolving market, presenting exhibitors with the opportunity to meet face to face with over 5,000 UK and European visitors representing the trade’s top buyers, group owners and entrepreneurs.

“Exhibiting at Caffe Culture proved to be a really effective and efficient marketing platform for both Banz Kofi and Tanna Coffee. They stood out in the crowd, attracting visitors that were looking for a product that ticks all the boxes – high quality, good social and environmental credentials and an engaging and exotic back story,” Ms Ekstrom said.

Banz Kofi Fektori’s Patrick Killoran praised the uniquely targeted event and highlighted the opportunities presented from their participation.

“The Caffe Culture event was fantastic. It was very small in comparison to SIAL Paris last year but for us, that was a good thing. The quality of the contacts we made during the two days was amazing. Because the entire event is focused on the café, specialty retail and food service industries, the people we met were not only technically knowledgeable about coffee, they were also enthusiastic about the unique flavour attributes and our grower’s stories and relationship to the environment,” said a very happy Mr Killoran.

“We’ve established contact with potential representatives for the UK (London based) and the EU (Zurich based). Because we manufacture and sell fresh roasted coffee and coffee pods we can supply direct to corporate customers and have completed orders to major Finnish and Estonian companies. We have also been invited to tender for supply of our Ground Coffee 70gm portion control packs to GateGroup Retail Onboard, a provider of catering and retail services for leading global airlines. I know we’ve got to work at it and it usually takes years to establish in the UK and Europe but it is a really good start,” he said.

Ms Ekstrom added, “Being invited to tender is an excellent opportunity for Banz Kofi Fektori, particularly in terms of market exposure and experience. Usually companies are not short-listed and invited to tender unless they are a preferred supplier for the client, so Banz Kofi obviously made a great impression.  In addition, GateGroup Retail Onboard has ear marked Banz Kofi to supply Premium Economy and Business class at a future date if they can be price competitive.”

Yasmine Adlington, Marketing Manager for Tanna Coffee said, “The response to Tanna Coffee has been wonderful and we have made really important inroads into the UK and European markets with this event. We’ve secured a UK agent / distributor, established and refreshed the Tanna brand with consumers and clients alike and have a number of really promising sales leads to follow up in the next six months. With our expansion plans now in place, it is all systems go and we have started building relationships that will take Tanna Coffee into the future.”