Third wave coffee will be dead if people continue expecting great coffee at rock bottom price!

Another of our wholesale account have bite the dust. A great cafe by measures of the kgs of coffee they served out and yet their huge social media followers cannot do anything to keep it afloat.

This follow through from another big announcement that came just before year 2017 come closing and the many more dreams that shattered the last few good years. Singapore F&B industry and in particular cafes are in the snake and ladder game. Blamed it on the high overheads of payrolls and landlord ridiculous demands but the truth is, we have been stuck selling the same coffee (which by the way gets better each year as the bar raised) at the same price of $5! How can this even be possible when kopitiams have even seen a price increase of their Kopi-O from $0.70 in 2005 to atleast $1.10 today.

As a few good cafes passed the first survival point of 5 hard years, employees that have been with them since Day One must have surely enjoyed some sort of salary increment and this definitely contributed to a higher cost of coffee per cup ovet the years but with the operator still selling them at the same price they started off 5 years ago. Thinner margins will surely mean a rocky bottomline and so, how do we expect sustainability then?

What does it take for our industry to revolutionise and raise the 'market price' together? Will we be hurt even if we increase the minimum price of coffee by another  $0.50 more? Does this 10% incremental even help cafe owners at all to survive? The low entry level will only mean more cafes will open in the future but the stagnant selling price will only mean more will close too.

Let's just  pray 2018 be kind to us.

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