Coffee Planet is pursuing franchise expansion as well as pushing its cold brew and nitro coffee, its new product innovations launched for the foodservice and retail sectors, as the company’s strategic focus for the year, managing director Robert Jones disclosed during Gulfood 2017.
” We went through an extensive process of redeveloping and renewing our franchise offer in 2016 and now, we’re very focused,” Jones revealed. ” It was approaching 10 years since our first design iteration so the redeveloped franchise offer has been brought up to a more relevant position, which will be accepted in more global markets.”
As for market feedback about the renewed franchise offer, Jones said, ” We’ve found that there’s a lot of interest in it. We’ve been promoting it in various franchise shows. It has been very well received and feedback has been very positive. We’re in negotiation with a number of parties for various terriories at the moment.”
On the company’s innovation pivot, Jones revealed that the UAE-based coffee roaster’s present focus is on promoting its newly launched cold brew and nitro coffee. Cold brew coffee is produced via a long-term filtering and extraction process utilising cold water. The cold brew is then infused with nitrogen, resulting in a thicker, creamier texture.
“Cold brew is growing in popularity overseas and Coffee Planet is starting to introduce it in the UAE. We are hoping to bring it to the market in quite a big way. It is something relatively new to our offer which we’re hoping to promote to our range of hospitalilty and HORECA clients, ” Jones said.  For HORECA clients, Jones stated that Coffee Planet will be providing the apparatus, set up and any necessary training.
He added that the cold brew products will be offered on retail as well. “We will provide these new offers through our existing retail channels, alongside the existing SKUs that we have with a wide range of supermarket retailers, ” Jones said.
He pointed out that Coffee Planet’s mandate on the quality sourcing of green beans as well as quality roasting process is what provides the company with its competitive advantage in the marketplace. “That focus on the supply chain and quality is hugely important; this is what sets us apart from other players in the market,” Jones said.
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