Illy’s Coffee Andrea Illy is CEO of the global premium coffee company that bears his family’s name..

Illy’s Coffee Andrea Illy is CEO of the global premium coffee company that bears his family’s name. As one might expect, he is passionate about coffee – its science, its health benefits, its taste, its beauty. Illy also has a dream that someday soon the coffee market might be transformed into something approaching the market for wine. Where connoisseurs discuss the fine points of various origin coffees and blends, where customers are willing to pay a premium for the finest examples of the coffee making art, and where the growers, roasters and baristas will be compensated fairly for the

»Illy’s Coffee Andrea Illy is CEO of the global premium coffee company that bears his family’s name. As one might expect, he is passionate about coffee – its science, its health benefits, its taste, its beauty. Illy also has a dream that someday soon the coffee market might be transformed into something approaching the market for wine. Where connoisseurs discuss the fine points of various origin coffees and blends, where customers are willing to pay a premium for the finest examples of the coffee making art, and where the growers, roasters and baristas will be compensated fairly for the expertise they contribute to every cup. Andrea has recently focused his attention on building his coffee brand in Canada. The company currently only sells its beans in the US to retailers as they have opened a manufacturing plant in Northeast USA. They have no presence in the Canadian market to date. Andrea’s focus is to expand into the Canadian market – but Andrea is not sure how to do this. Illy would need to retail at a premium price compared to competitors in the market but Andrea feels that this would not be an issue once the consumer tastes Illy’s smooth, fragrant coffee bean. Because of this, Andrea is weary of who he sells the product too. It is important to him to maintain his brand image as a premium coffee producer and does not want to compromise this in any way. One of his most trusted advisor’s has found a small retail location in the heart of downtown Toronto, specifically in a very affluent area. His idea is to serve coffee as well as sell coffee beans and other branded Illy items. The rent is high but the clientele in the area are known to pay extra for premium goods, especially for coffee. He feels this a great way to enter the Canadian market and then grow the brand from here. Another employee who has been with the company for 15 years is weary of this suggestion. Illy is not really known to Canadians, should we invest in a retail outlet ourselves? She knows it is a difficult task to establish the distribution network but she recommends to sell the most popular selling item (1 kg. coffee beans) to retail locations first (like Loblaws, Whole Foods and Pusateri’s) and use a marketing budget to build awareness and distribution Andrea needs to make a decision. Regardless, Andrea has decided to allocate a marketing budget to build the product in Canada no matter which direction he chooses. He has budgeted $200,000 for the launch.

»