It’s been over a year since we interviewed Algrano’s CEO, Gilles Brunner. Back then we thought their platform was well laid out and clean. It made it easy for coffee roasters to purchase green coffee directly without having to travel to the producing country and run the usual gauntlet of buying at source. If you want to know how tricky that can be, read a detailed guide to buying green coffee here.
Now, Algrano has made a major upgrade to their system, and we’re very pleased to share this information with you. One of the things we like a lot about Algrano is how they de-risk the whole process for the roaster.
By implementing a formal methodology that works, and quality checking samples at different points in the journey, they apply the best practices. All the roaster needs to do is explore the coffees on the platform, and place an order. Order sizes can be quite small, as their scale allows them to batch different orders together and ship them efficiently.
In order to get the message out, the company has put together a pretty cool marketing campaign around the launch, with the theme of: ‘Be the Coffee DJ’. and yes, there is a playlist to go with it!
Here’s what they have to say about the launch campaign and the features which the new Algrano system offers:
Source to the beat of your own drum: new Algrano experience is turning point in direct coffee sourcing
Digital tools released over the last year bring direct coffee sourcing to a new level, giving roasters and producers full control and visibility over their supply chains. Algrano celebrates this milestone with “Be the coffee DJ” campaign, encouraging roasters to mute the middleman and amp up the producer.
Algrano was launched in 2015 with the purpose to transfer power from traders to roasters and producers. It started by providing a marketplace for micro-lots and a no-barrier communications channel. Now, we developed an advanced interface to give users autonomy and control. With our new features, roasters have the tools to plan, build partnerships, feedback, manage their inventory, release coffee from the warehouse in one click and schedule road transport all in one place. It’s a milestone.
The personalized sourcing planner is a key new feature that helps roasters schedule the delivery of relationship coffees, which Algrano ships regardless of volume. They can also hire warehousing services on-demand to make costs efficient and send sample feedback directly, whilst producers can contact potential buyers as soon as a roaster orders a sample on the platform. In a nutshell: Algrano’s mission remains the same but everything else is better.
The new tools have seen the number of exchanges between producers and roasters skyrocket. Messages exchanged went from 35 a month at the end of 2020 to up to 82 a day in the middle of 2021. The percentage of sample feedback shared by roasters with producers jumped by 150% in Q1. All this is giving roasters confidence to contract autonomously.
Messages exchanged went from 35 a month at the end of 2020 to up to 82 a day in the middle of
Be the coffee DJ campaign
To mark this new phase of the platform, we are releasing the “Be the coffee DJ” campaign with a series of illustrations that compare coffee sourcing to music and playlists created in collaboration with Algrano’s partners in producing countries. The concept is simple: if the upsurge of streaming gave people control over what they listen to and how they listen to it, the new Algrano gives roasters control of who they source from and how they do it, making them the DJs of the supply chain. It’s time to mute the middleman and amp up the producer.
Key new Algrano features
End-to-end green sourcing planner
Plan purchases according to scheduled shipping dates, see the ETAs for contracts that are afloat with updates in real-time, and bags in the warehouse with a stock forecast. Save timelines for your favourite lots and farmers, highlight contracts for important clients and have your sourcing needs mapped out in custom calendars. Relationship management tools
Other than sending direct messages to producers to create a relationship, roasters can also send sample feedback straight to the origin with ratings and quality comments. Buyers can also plan the rebuy of the same coffee for the upcoming harvest so producers know what to expect.
Matchmaking by values and impact
You could already browse coffees according to country of origin, price and volume. Now you can find lots by name of the farm, producers’ values, type of impact, spoken languages and even level of experience in selling directly! Finding the right coffee to suit your unique needs is easier!
Online stock management and warehouse releases
The redesigned roasters’ dashboard gives users the full overview of contracted coffee stock availability. Track sample orders, the status of multiple shipments, and organise road transport to your roastery in just a few clicks. Roasters are only charged warehousing costs for what they really use with no hidden fees.
About Algrano Algrano is roasters’ go-to place to source green coffee directly from producers and manage their inventory. We are a B2B digital supply chain ecosystem that offers services to buy coffees from all over the world with full logistics taken care of, quality assurance and price transparency, giving roasters total peace of mind.
The platform is already used by key roasters in Europe, in particular Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland, sourcing coffee from farmers in Latin America, Asia and Africa. Our motto is “You connect. We deliver.”
Coffee sourcing in the 21st century
Coffee sourcing is a $30bn dollars industry run entirely on email, excel and PDFs. While today everyone manages their money through e-banking and drives around using Google Maps, coffee sourcing and trading is stuck in the 90s. Coffee is bought and sold with a big, pitch-black box of shipping documents, import taxes and hedges that nobody dares to touch.
For the past seven years, Algrano has been simplifying direct coffee sourcing and shipping more than 3,000 tons of relationship coffee. From Brazil to Denmark and Rwanda to the United Kingdom, we see a new account nearly every day. Instead of hiding information, we share more than everyone ever did. What used to be a business done over the phone is now a fully autonomous process.
Our operations team works quietly in the background, focusing on the more mundane parts of the process: import and export, quality assurance, financing and shipping – leaving the core of the coffee sourcing business to those who really should have been in charge of it all along.
Media enquiries
Maria Barikhina, Head of Marketing +41 76 563 66 58 maria@algrano.com algrano.com/takecontrol
