SCAA, Roast Magazine and Pacific Bag Team Up for 2015 Roaster Research

2006 photo “Roasted Beans” by Sarahemcc. Creative Commons license.

Roast Magazine often receives highly specific inquiries from existing or potential coffee business owners. Inquiries like, “How many commercial roasteries opened in the U.S. last year?” or, “How much money do wholesale roasters of X size devote to marketing?”

Unfortunately, the answers to these types of questions have not, to this point, been readily available. That’s why we’re genuinely excited to announce our partnership role, along with Pacific Bag Inc., in the new 2015 Roaster Research Report being led by the Specialty Coffee Association of America. The report follows the SCAA’s renewed commitment to useful data collection for its membership.

For the survey that will inform the report, SCAA is working with Industry Insights, an Ohio-based industry research group that specializes in data collection and dissemination for trade and professional organizations. The SCAA is hoping to collect answers by this Friday, April 17, and all respondents will receive a full industry-wide report and a company performance report (CPR). We encourage you to participate and help improve our collective understanding of coffee roasting, the business.

Here’s more from SCAA Research Analyst Heather Ward on the scope and direction of the study:

Our main objectives in this study are to determine market size of the roaster segment, find challenges roasters are currently facing, and provide comparative benchmark information against which roasters can compare their financial performance statistics.

The survey is designed to increase our awareness of how the roaster segment of the specialty coffee market is performing. To reach this awareness, your participation by answering questions regarding financial operating metrics, information on human resources, advertising/marketing efforts and best practices would be of great value. We understand the information requested is sensitive and private, but we want to assure you responses will be kept in strict confidence by Industry Insights. No individual company responses will be shared with SCAA or any other person or organization. Industry Insights has provided a statement of confidentiality and non-disclosure for the study.

We would like to invite roaster wholesalers and retailers to participate in the Roaster Research Survey. All respondents to the survey will receive a full industry-wide report and a company performance report (CPR).

The full industry-wide report will include comparative financial ratios and company statistics of respondents based on key data segments, such as: all respondents, profitability, net sales, full-time equivalent employees, and any other data aggregation deemed relevant. The company performance reports (CPR) are confidential, individualized reports of a participant’s own financial ratios, operating statistics, and profile characteristics shown alongside the appropriate industry comparatives (i.e., all respondents, profitability, net sales, FTEs, etc.).

These reports provide respondents an easy means for interpreting their results; since their own ratios are already calculated for them in a manner that is consistent with the industry calculations. Additionally, the Company Performance Reports will include a “Report Card” which will essentially “grade” your company on key ratios using the quartiles as benchmarks. The Report Card will focus on the key operating ratios and will provide actionable feedback on the success and/or improvement areas for each respondent.