Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/49395
sale of packaged coffee and other goods for offsite use. That segment, designated "commercial sales," soared 75.5 percent to $19.8 million. Starbucks posted profits for the fourth quarter up 29 percent over last year, beating Wall Street's expectations. The profit was on revenue that rose 7 percent in the period. Profit stood at $358.5 million (47 cents per share), compared with $278.9 million (37 cents per share) last year. "Starbucks today is executing in all markets and across all channels," Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said in a statement. "We have never been better positioned to go hard and go fast after the tremendous opportunity that lies ahead in 2012 and beyond." Holland moves to restrict cannabis cafés Tourists no longer welcome; shops cry foul Holland has placed restrictions on some of its famous marijuana-selling coffeehouses that will effectively shut out so-called "drug tourism." Starting Jan. 1, coffeehouses in the southern Dutch provinces of Zeeland, Limburg and North-Brabant will not be allowed to sell cannabis to foreigners. Under the new policy, such coffeehouses will be considered private clubs, limited to membership of no more than 2,000 Dutch residents. The center-right government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte has been advocating restrictions on "cannabis cafés" for a long time, saying that drug tourism leads to drug pushers, disturbances and other nuisances. Coffeehouse owners have argued that restrictions would cut into tourism revenue. The no-foreigners rule is scheduled to take hold across Holland at the beginning of 2013. In 2014, the government plans to require cannabis-selling coffeehouses to be at least 1,200 feet away from schools. Mass. fi nes Starbucks for hidden fee $1.50 charge draws $1,575 fine A consumer watchdog agency in Massachusetts has fined Starbucks for charging an undisclosed $1.50 fee on small bags of coffee. The state Office of Consumer Affairs levied the $1,575 fine after it discovered that Starbucks outlets were charging $1.50 extra for sales of coffee beans or ground coffee of less than one-half pound and not disclosing the fee, even on sales receipts. The department discovered the practice going on in Starbucks outlets in Boston and a dozen other cities across the state. "While Starbucks, and any retailer, is allowed to charge any additional fees it wants on a product, those additional fees have to be clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the consumer before the purchase," Consumer Affairs chief Barbara Anthony told the Boston Globe. Coff ee tied to lower skin cancer risk Study shows 20% lower risk for female coffee drinkers The supposed health benefits of coffee already include a reduced risk of colon, rectal and breast cancers. Now skin cancer may be added to that list. The U.S. Nurses' Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, one of the largest-scale and longest-term epidemiological studies in the U.S., reported that women who drank more than three cups of caffeinated coffee a day had a 20 percent lower chance of developing basal cell carcinoma, the most common form of skin cancer. Men who drank that much coffee showed a 9 percent lower rate. The study tracked 113,000 subjects for a period of 22 to 24 years, with 25,480 cases of skin cancer reported. Decaffeinated coffee had no effect, and only basal cell carcinoma was affected. Researchers theorized that caffeine kills precancerous cells in the early stages of development and multiplication. World coff ee supplies down slightly Several major producers face dropoff Global coffee production will fall slightly as bad growing conditions in several major producing nations outweigh higher-than- average crops in some others. World coffee production for the 2010-11 growing season is estimated to be 127.4 million 60-kilogram bags, a downward revision from September's forecast of 129.5 million, according to the International Coffee Organization. Spot prices for Robusta coffee have been edging upward since hitting a yearly low in October, hovering around $2.70 a pound by late November. Conditions in several countries are affecting prices: • Shipments from Brazil, the global leader in coffee exports, in November was 3 million bags, down about 6 percent from November 2010. October shipments were 3.09 million bags, down 16 percent from October 2010. A heavy frost in Brazil is said to have the potential to affect production next year. • Colombia, the world's leading supplier of high-end Arabica beans, will fall below production targets for the third consecutive year due to heavy rains. Production is estimated at 8 million bags, 1 million less than the goal, according to the head of the nation's coffee growers' federation. • Output in Guatemala, Central America's second-largest producer, will fall almost 9 percent, to 3.6 million bags, also due to rains. El Salvador's production will fall more than 21 percent, to 1.45 million bags. • In Vietnam, the world's leading exporter of Robusta beans, output is predicted to be 18.5 million bags, a drop of 5.4 percent. • Tanzania, a major supplier of Arabica beans, is expected to produce 45,000 tons of coffee this growing season , a drop of 20 percent from last year. • On the other hand, favorable weather is expected to boost yields elsewhere in Africa. The Ethiopian crop is predicted to increase 27 percent to 6.35 million bags, while Ivory Coast's coffee crop is forecast to surge 60 percent, to 1.6 million bags. It's unclear to what extent current coffee prices are related to supply. Industry observers have suggested that volatility in commodities futures markets are at least partly to blame for price fluctuations. BRIEFS • Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has announced plans to build a production and distribution facility in Isle of Wight County in southeast Virginia. The 330,000-square- foot facility will be used for processing Green Mountain's single-serve K-Cups for the Keurig brewing system. • Equator Coffees and Teas, a women- owned green business, has received the 2011 Growth Award from the Association for Corporate Growth. (ACG). December 2011 • www.specialty-coffee.com | 7