Ch 7- Business Marketing

"Business Marketing is the marketing of goods and services to individuals and organizations for purposes other than personal consumption." Mcdonalds focuses on its strategic alliances with suppliers for their coffee. Along with their great marketing skills they still need to maintain the great alliances they have for their new McCafe line.   

McDonalds and McCafes in many national markets are part of the rainforest alliance. All McDonalds outlets and McCafes in Ireland and Australia for two examples offer only Rainforest Alliance coffees.

So far in the U.S. markets Franke Espresso Super automatics are being installed along with Bunn brewers. Three roasters are now the primary coffee suppliers for the U.S. McDonalds and McCafe outlets. They are located regionally: Gavina, Vernon, Califorinia, distant lands of Tyler, Texas; and S&D coffee of Concord, North Carolina.

S & D is currently the largest supplier of McDonalds' coffee plus all of its tea. According to Distant Lands, the McCafe rollout took six years of preparation, closely working with a McDonalds team to realize a unique espresso taste. These roasting companies are privately held and maintain their own ongoing coffee roasting and packaging activities, for their own brands or for the store brand/private label sectors. F. Gavina & Sons, owned and managed by the Gavina family, reportedly generates 100 million dollars in sales, of which 15% is from McDonalds. Gavina sources coffee to more than 3,000 McDonalds/McCafes in the western U.S.

McCafe is not just for McDonalds to become excited by, the entire coffee industry from trees to bars to office and vending services to store shelves ought to be caught up in this major new development, potentially the most vigorous coffee sales initiative since Starbucks' rise. Espresso, especially with McCafe, is gaining a vast new drinking market. And it might as well bring a significant young market to the drink, which coffee needs. Certainly no one should doubt the power of McDonalds or its new commitment to coffee. Here again we watch what could be a brighter future in the brewing for coffee.