After two years of convening virtually, the National Coffee Association celebrated a successful return to in-person Conventions! Two weeks ago, we welcomed nearly 800 attendees from the coffee world and beyond to our 2023 Annual Convention, held this year at the Tampa Marriott Water Street in sunny Tampa, Florida. Our exhibitor hall tabletops we bustling, the energy in the hotel was electric, and as we comb through surveys and social media, the feedback we’ve received has been overwhelmingly positive. We want to thank our sponsors, exhibitors, speakers, attendees, and staff for helping to make this year’s Convention such a success.
This year’s Convention theme, Resilience & Reinvention, spoke to the industry’s ability to evolve to meet the challenges of the day and thrive despite ongoing economic and public health challenges.
Keynote speakers included Cheryl Hung of Dig Insights, who previewed the latest data in the upcoming National Coffee Data Trends report; G. Scott Clemons of Brown Brothers Harriman, whose session “This Time Isn’t So Different” offered a potential path forward for economic growth; Amanda Lindhout who explored the critical components of resilience with her inspiring story of survival; Sarita Maybin, who spoke about turning uncomfortable conversations into constructive communication; and Tim Powell of Foodservice IP, who looked at what’s next for C-store coffee.
NCA also presented two awards. The first went to Charles “Charlie” Cortellini, presented with the NCA Distinguished Leadership Award in honor of his over four decades of service and dedication to the NCA and coffee industry. The second award was presented to Days for Girls International, NCA’s 2023 Origin Charity of the Year, in recognition of their work improving the health, education, and livelihood outcomes of women and girls in coffee-growing regions around the world.
Days for Girls will receive a portion of the proceeds from the Step n’ Serve Challenge, where Convention attendees got moving for a good cause, racking up over 2.5 million steps in support of DfG’s mission. In fact, the NCA community gave back to multiple great causes this year. The Coffee Gives Back Day of Service benefitted Starting Right, Now – a program dedicated to ending youth homelessness in Tampa. Volunteers helped give one of Starting Right, Now’s facilities a makeover, planting flowers, herbs, and vegetables; washing windows; deep-cleaning the kitchen; and painting residents’ bedrooms and common areas.
Attendee volunteers also helped to provide local Floridians who suffered loss from the recent hurricanes with much-needed eco-friendly household goods and supplies by assembling donation kits at the United Way Suncoast Sustainability Project station.
Finally, we can’t forget the fun. Each night of the Convention was capped with an evening reception, where attendees were able to unwind, reconnect with old friends, and create lasting connections with colleagues from across the industry. Social events at NCA Conventions are not only great celebrations but also serve as low-pressure opportunities to network with the people that make this industry work. The smiling faces say it all — we were all thrilled to be back together in person for the first time in three years!
The next NCA Annual Convention will be held in Nashville, Tennessee, March 7-9, 2024. Now that we’re back in the groove of in-person Conventions, we’re already looking forward to doing it all over again. We can’t wait to see you all in Nashville — sign up here to receive details!
Coffee is an everyday staple for many Americans – in fact, more Americans (66% of adults) drink coffee each day than any other beverage. NCA conducts the longest-running study of consumer coffee habits in the United States, and our most recent data show that not only is coffee maintaining its popularity overall, but it’s also more popular than ever with younger generations. In September 2022, 51% of 18 to 24-year-olds drank coffee each day, surpassing the previous record of 50% from September 2020.
Whether as fuel for our mornings, an afternoon boost, or just for the flavor and aroma – Americans love coffee. And during March – National Nutrition Month – there is even more reason to celebrate coffee’s unique benefits!
For Nutrition Month, let’s start with the basics. Coffee is a calorie-free food, as defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That is, the USDA Nutrient Database reports the calorie content of 8 ounces of coffee (without sweeteners, creamers, or other additives) as 2.37 calories. With less than 5 calories per serving, coffee qualifies as a “calorie-free” food. While it doesn’t have calories, coffee does contain more than 1000 natural compounds that may be related to its health impact. For example, coffee is a major source of antioxidants in U.S. diets.
The 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans include coffee as a beverage that can be part of healthy dietary patterns. When it comes to coffee’s place in healthy diets, it’s reasonable to wonder about the impact of ingredients commonly added to coffee – for example, dairy (or dairy alternatives) and sweeteners. Our data show that 35% of past-day coffee drinkers take their coffee without any milk or creamers and 54% take it without sugar or sweetener. Just 29% use dairy or dairy alternatives and 27% use sugar. Importantly, if those who enjoy coffee with a bit of sugar (1-2 tsp per cup) have 3 cups of coffee a day, they will have consumed just an additional 48-96 calories. A 2022 analysis from the UK Biobank Study, one of the best-designed prospective cohort studies in the world, associates greater longevity with coffee drinking. This association with higher longevity was even found among those who consume sugar-sweetened coffee.
So, what are the specific health benefits of coffee? Decades of independent scientific evidence show that drinking coffee is associated with living longer, healthier, happy lives. Prospective studies, published in peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine andCirculation, encompassing hundreds of thousands of people in the United States, United Kingdom, other European countries, South Korea, and elsewhere show increased longevity in coffee drinkers. In fact, a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that compared with nonconsumers, participants with the highest level of coffee consumption had a statistically significant lower all-cause mortality. Moreover, among women, there was a statistically significant inverse association of coffee drinking with circulatory disease mortality and cerebrovascular disease mortality.
In a blog post last month, we discussed in detail coffee’s positive impact on heart health. In addition to being associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (the leading cause of death for Americans), drinking coffee is associated with a reduced risk of multiple cancers. The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) recommends drinking coffee “regularly” and the American Cancer Society (ACS) has concluded that coffee reduces the risk of multiple cancers including liver cancer, endometrial cancer, cancers of the mouth, pharynx, and larynx, as well as basal cell skin cancer and melanoma.
These statements are backed up by dozens of high-quality studies. One study found that coffee is the only antioxidant food associated with reduced risk of the most common type of skin cancer, cutaneous melanoma. According to the ACS, skin cancer is “by far the most common type of cancer.” In fact, one in every five Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70.
Coffee consumption is also associated with maintaining a healthy body weight and reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, another leading cause of ill health for Americans. A study published in The Journal of Nutrition in 2020 found that higher coffee consumption (both caffeinated and decaffeinated) was associated with “significantly lower total body fat percentage and trunk body fat” in women.
Evidence indicates that moderate coffee consumption is associated with a significantly reduced risk of developing type 2 diabetes. According to Diabetes UK, research has indicated a “notably lower risk” of type 2 diabetes for coffee drinkers, about 40% reduced risk for those who drink 3 cups/day. The organization says decaffeinated coffee may have particular benefits for people living with diabetes. Specific studies have supported this finding. For example, a study published in Nutrition Reviews found that coffee consumption is inversely associated with the risk of Type 2 Diabetes; this may be due to coffee’s antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects, among other benefits.
As if that weren’t good news enough, drinking coffee is also associated with mental health benefits. Meta-analyses of studies including more than 300,000 individuals found that each cup of coffee reduced the risk of depression by about 8%, with the greatest benefits from four cups per day.
We could go on (and we have – for example, in our recent comment to FDA regarding its draft rule on products eligible to be labeled as “healthy”). The evidence is clear: coffee makes unique contributions as part of healthy dietary patterns that support good nutrition and health.
One recent column published in The Atlantic went so far as to call coffee “a miracle.” That particular claim isn’t scientific, but we tend to agree with the sentiment! This month and every month, we hope the evidence on coffee and health gives you an extra reason to enjoy your favorite brew.
For over twenty years, I worked for the motion picture industry. Networking has always been the lifeblood of Hollywood – even while it was maddeningly difficult.
Take film industry conventions.
Hollywood has a couple of typical industry conferences, but most gatherings revolve around film festivals – often in glamorous, expensive places. There’s seldom a big exhibit hall with vendors – instead, filmmakers show clips of their work in private rooms, writers “pitch” scripts in one-on-one meetings, and deals are made at unadvertised parties.
There’s a secretive, fluid mystery to everything that’s happening, and always the sense that you are missing something. That uncertainty is complemented by the chaos of autograph seekers, paparazzi, and publicists all jockeying for attention. Unless you know how to “work” a film festival, you might as well stay home.
While networking at film festivals and association conventions may seem to have little in common, there is one key aspect in which they are similar: if you plan to network at either, you’ll need to have a strategy and go prepared.
It’s well-understood that coffee is good for the soul – a welcome companion to add some get-up-and-go to any morning (or afternoon!) Less known, however, might be coffee’s unique impacts beyond that burst of joy and energy.
In fact, coffee is associated with a reduced risk of multiple cancers and chronic diseases, including liver and endometrial cancers and heart disease. That’s right, coffee is good for the heart and thesoul! And there’s no better time than American Heart Month to celebrate all the ways coffee supports heart health.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death for Americans. In 2020, nearly 700,000 people in the United States died from heart disease, and every year more than 800,000 suffer heart attacks.
While there are countless, complex factors that determine an individual’s risk for heart disease, common risk factors include diabetes, high weight and/or obesity, poor diet, and a sedentary lifestyle. The federal government has identified combatting risk factors like type 2 diabetes, obesity, and hypertension as top health priorities.
A large body of scientific evidence gives reason to think coffee can help. Dating back to at least 2008, large, high-quality studies have consistently shown that drinking up to 6 cups of coffee per day is associated with a significantly decreased incidence of high blood pressure for those who don’t already have it.
Other studies show that drinking coffee is associated with well-functioning metabolisms and can help people maintain a healthy weight, even those with genetic predispositions toward obesity.
A 2020 study found that participants who drank 4 cups of coffee per day showed a loss of fat mass and reduced levels of excreted creatinine- a hormone which if found to be excreted at high levels can be an indicator of diabetes.
Just last year, a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology found that decaffeinated, ground, and instant coffee, particularly at 2–3 cups per day, were all associated with significant reductions in incident cardiovascular disease and mortality.
One study published in the American Heart Association’s Stroke journal found that drinking just one cup of coffee per week reduced the risk of death (from any cause) by 14%, and the protective effect was particularly pronounced in heart attack survivors. Coffee drinkers who previously survived a heart attack were 22% less likely to die prematurely.
Some researchers have even concluded that coffee can help heal a broken heart – a protein found in coffee promotes heart cell health and can help protect cells from dying after a heart attack. The same study also notes that coffee consumption resulted in improved cardiovascular function in elderly populations and concludes that coffee could serve as an additional protective dietary factor for older people.
If that weren’t enough, coffee can also help support heart health by contributing to other healthy habits like exercise. For example, coffee consumption can help improve performance and endurance as well as help muscles recover more efficiently.
In short, your morning coffee (or coffees, if you’re anything like me) is doing a lot more than making the work day more enjoyable. It’s working to keep your heart healthy and your body moving. If that isn’t a good reason to love your brew even more, I don’t know what is.
Mike Vilarino, Business Integration Manager with Baronet Coffee, continues his conversation with Wim Abbing, President and CEO of Probat. Probat is a multinational coffee equipment manufacturer headquartered in Emmerich, Germany. In case you missed Part I of Mike’s interview with Wim, be sure to check it out here!
Vilarino: Things must’ve really changed since you began in coffee. In what ways has the business changed since you started.
Abbing: There has been so much change since I entered the business two decades ago. What I sensed in the ‘90s was that coffee was just warm brown “stuff.” I always give Starbucks a lot of credit; they really expanded our perception of coffee beyond that of habit. With that, the industry evolved to how it is today, where consumers have so many options, something that I didn’t feel was present in the 90s.
I always hear, ‘Your company is 150 years old, and you build roasters that last 40 to 50+ years, why are you still selling roasters? There MUST be enough roasters in the world to roast all the coffee?’ What I always say to that is this: for Probat it is important that coffee habits change. As habits evolve, customers need new roasters, new controls, and new technology. All those things are crucial to our industry but especially to Probat. We are seeing those shifts now, continuing throughout the pandemic.
You mention the pandemic, what has that been like as the leader of Probat? How have you navigated these unprecedented times?
Abbing: I was in China in January 2020 and came home sick. My wife thinks that I had Covid-19 in Jan 2020!
My last business trip before the pandemic was the NCA Convention and at that time things were starting to feel different. When I got back to Germany, I had a meeting with my management team to discuss what our next steps would be. We sent everyone home, started shift work (something we had never done), and reduced the density of people that were working in person.
To be honest, throughout this time, we either had to try something new or go out of business. And at the end of the day, it ended up working out pretty well. Of course, the first few weeks and months were a bit shaky, but things ended up stabilizing. Only 150 out of the nearly 500 people in Emmerich were required to be in person. The rest were engineers who can work remotely. We are lucky that we had that type of flexibility.
Our biggest challenge during this time, however, was managing our service network. We are a company with customers all over the world, which proved difficult to manage during a time when travel was restricted. We decided to take a couple different approaches. First, we hired regionally-based service engineers. That gave us the ability to continue to service our customers while minimizing travel for the team. Second, we utilized technology to assist us with installations. Our in-person staff would wear a camera while speaking with a remote engineer who would be giving them live step-by-step instructions as the remote engineer was able to see exactly what our in-person technician was seeing. Essentially, we did things we never thought we would have needed to do.
While we seem to be finally moving on from the pandemic, there is another crisis at the forefront of European minds. How are you dealing with the gas crisis and the unrest in Eastern Europe?
Abbing: If you’re a CEO you must be optimistic. What is happening right now is, however, a bit frightening. On the business side, we wrote our processes to account for the scenario where we were out of gas and power. At Probat, everyone knows what the contingency plans are if they need to be executed.
Tensions are escalating in Europe, which makes you realize how fragile of a time it is.
We all hope that this is not coming but we are prepared if it does.
Switching gears, when did you become involved in the NCA? What is your current involvement?
Abbing: I’m fairly new to the NCA, at least to the NCA Board. I have been attending the NCA conventions for almost 2 decades now. This was one of the first objectives of my time as President at Probat.
I think organizations like the NCA are necessary for what I would consider a fragmented industry. We have so many small and medium-sized companies! And because of that, the research in coffee falls behind that of other industries. In order for the coffee industry to grow and develop, we need associations like the NCA to bring together all small, medium, and large-scale businesses. The NCA does a great job of doing just that.
Did you have any mentors starting out in the business?
Abbing: I would’ve loved to, but no, I didn’t! While I might not have had an active mentor, there are several people in coffee that made a sizable impression on me. Mr. Nabeiro of Delta Coffee in Portugal, for example, is 91 and still involved in the business! He is such an amazing person; he built an educational center about coffee in his village, and I admire him deeply.
Outside of him, we really have so many great people in coffee. I could keep going, but Mr. Nabiero is just one of several people that made a lasting impression on me.
What advice would you give yourself that maybe you didn’t get when starting out in the business?
Abbing: Listen more. Don’t be so quick in making decisions!
What advice would you give to the ‘next generation’?
Abbing: Meet as many people as you can! The more diverse the better. I would say, go to Mongolia and learn what they do there! Go to Tanzania and experience how they plant coffee trees!
Another piece of advice I would give to the next generation would be to learn from other players in the industry. And don’t forget, you can learn from people you might not see eye-to-eye with as well. There is a saying in Germany: ‘there is nobody that is so bad that would serve as a bad example.’ For me now, I believe the worst way to run a company is running it from a desk. I try and get out and see people as much as possible, and I implore the younger generation to do the same.
Final question, a little bit of a goofy one. You and 3 open seats at a dinner table, who are you sitting with?
Abbing: I try to understand why people act like they act. Therefore, I would love to sit together with President Trump, Borris Johnson, and Angela Merkel. More political than business right now! Of course, I would love to understand more about Elon Musk and everything he has going on as well.
A different, fun table would include Ru Paul and President Obama. I think that table would be great!
Thank you again to Wim Abbing, President and CEO of Probat, for graciously sharing his thoughts on the industry and advice to the next generation!
It’s not every day you come across an 18-year-old who has been brewing and cupping coffee since the age of three, but that’s exactly who we have with us today. Keely Thomas is a University of South Carolina student and the co-founder of Grand Strand Coffee. Like many others, Keely’s family is deeply rooted in coffee, but her active involvement from such a young age makes her Next Gen story one that you cannot miss! Bent Dietrich, Next Gen Council Member, and Trader at American Coffee Corp. sat down with Keely to learn more.
Let’s start at the beginning of what is a truly “Next Gen” story! Tell us a little bit about who you are.
My name is Keely Thomas, and I recently turned 18. I was born in Gastonia, NC, but I have lived in Salt Spring Island, BC, Vancouver, BC, Seattle, WA, and Fairfax, VA. I am a co-founder/barista of Grand Strand Coffee in Myrtle Beach, SC, and a full-time student at the University of South Carolina, majoring in International Business and Operations and Supply Chain. I am also heavily involved in the University of South Carolina’s School of Music where I play music in the Bassoon Studio and University band.
Some of us may be familiar with your story due to the Barista Magazine highlight, but for those who are not, how did you get started in coffee? And what are you up to these days?
Due to my parent’s long coffee history, it is practically in my blood. I’ve grown up in coffee shops, coffee roasting plants, and QC labs. I started cupping around age 3, but mostly just tasting the coffee. By age 6, I had learned how to make great coffees on V-60 pour-overs and made my parents coffee in bed for years (that stopped when I became a full-time barista). When I was around 10, my father started teaching me to roast samples on Probat sample roasters, and at that point, I began to learn how to cup for defects and descriptions. This came in handy during the pandemic.
When I was 13, I wanted a job, but I was too young to begin working as a barista, so I decided to open a small cold brew stand at the farmers market with the help of my mother. We ran the cold brew booth for two years before we got the opportunity to have an actual brick-and-mortar store. We opened our first store in March 2020 (right at the beginning of the pandemic). It was a challenge opening in that environment, but we had a significant following already. Plus, we were so specialty-focused that we didn’t have much competition. There were other coffee shops in the area, but no one was focused on specialty coffee like we were. Customers quickly understood that we were a coffee family, and we were focused on high-end specialty and telling the story of the coffee all the way back to the farmers that grew it.
How is the transition going from being in high school and working at Grand Strand Coffee to being a full-time college student? Have you scoped out your favorite coffee spots at the University of South Carolina yet?
Transitioning from high school to college is very different from what I expected. In high school, Covid allowed me to go virtual and work full-time at Grand Strand Coffee. After going back in person for my senior year, I had enough credits to go to school for only half the day, which also allowed me to work at the store. Now that I’m in school three hours away from home, I cannot go in and pick up barista shifts, but I still help with social media and special projects for GSC. During our holidays, I am lucky enough to drive home to work at Grand Strand Coffee! Thankfully, I have found a great coffee shop in Columbia. They are a small, quality-focused, family-owned coffee roastery in Cottontown, Columbia, called Indah Coffee Co., and I enjoy a cortado from them every weekend.
You’ve helped your father out with samples and seen his work at home. As an importer for Intercontinental Coffee Trading, he helps connect roasters to coffee producers all over the world. Despite your young age, you’ve actually had a lot of exposure to various parts of the business. Between the roasting side and importing side, what are your favorite aspects of the industry?
Currently, I enjoy being a barista. I enjoy creating classic and new drink combinations to serve my customers, such as the sweet and spicy latte, a blend of brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cayenne pepper, and allspice. I also enjoy educating people about specialty coffee. These traits are some of which make working at Grand Strand Coffee a lot of fun. Since moving to Columbia for school, I have been attending barista competitions and would eventually like to compete in the US Barista Championship.
As you mentioned, I have spent much time helping my father since he works from home. We have a Probat sample roaster here, so during the pandemic, when the ICT office in San Diego was closed, my father and I had to help with QC. Most of the samples from Origin would come to us to cup and we would then let the team know the results. I would roast the samples, set up the tables, and cup five days a week with my father. As much as I love cupping and roasting, I would still prefer to go into trading at some point.
Are you planning on staying in the coffee industry after you graduate from college?
I definitely plan on staying in the coffee industry after I graduate. I want to become a Specialty Coffee Trader and eventually start my own importing company.
For the industry as a whole, how do you view the future of the industry?
As a whole, I feel that the coffee industry will continue to see a shift toward specialty. We’ve been seeing this trend in the US for a while, and after talking to my father about some of the next-generation coffee producers, I feel origin is moving in that direction. In Myrtle Beach, real specialty coffee is a bit new; most coffee shops are still trying to copy Starbucks by selling sweet and milky drinks. We’ve noticed that at our store, people will drive across town and pass dozens of coffee shops to come to GSC to get classic-style espresso drinks and nice specialty coffee from us. Knowing how far people drive to get a cup of coffee from us is the best compliment we could receive. I genuinely believe this is the future of coffee.
What kind of change or progress do you see the Next Generation of coffee bringing to the industry?
I think technology and social media will play a significant role in the next generation. Social media is already a great way to teach people about coffee and the whole process from seed to cup. You’ve got amazing baristas like Morgan Ekroth (Morgan Drinks Coffee) and next-generation coffee growers like Sara Corrales (Finca Los Pinos) putting out great content. This content shows younger people that coffee is more than just a way to get “cheap energy” to help them study all night; coffee has history and lots of passion behind it.
What advice would you share with your fellow Next Gen-ers or people looking to get involved in the coffee industry?
I want to share some advice with people trying to get into the coffee industry: just go for it! If you enjoy a favorite coffee shop/roastery, submit an application. There are so many opportunities in the coffee industry and so many amazing people and cultures; there is something for everyone to enjoy.
The future is certainly looking bright with passionate coffee lovers like Keely coming up in the industry! On behalf of the Next Gen Council, thank you to Keely for her time and involvement.
Company: ePac Flexibles Location: Austin, Texas NCA Member Since: December 2022 Website:epacflexibles.com Facebook: facebook.com/ePacFlexiblePackaging Instagram: instagram.com/epacflexiblepackaging
What does ePac Flexibles do?
We provide coffee bag packaging for specialty coffee roasters. This includes stand-up pouches and quad packs. In 2023, we will launch our new flat-bottom product following an increase in demand from our customers.
What drives your passion for this industry?
We love coffee at ePac and we will continue to invest in the category and bring new and innovative sustainable packaging options to our customers.
What’s your perfect cup of coffee?
I prefer a semi-automatic machine with a separate grinder. My favorite piece of coffee equipment is the Marzocco.
What sets your organization apart?
We have the largest and fastest digital print network in North America. We offer low SKU runs, and 10 to 15-day deliveries. This is very useful for brand owners that need greater flexibility and agility for their single or blended products and also provides a platform for our customers to generate additional revenue streams through private labels. To summarize, we improve our customers’ cash flows and help reduce waste through our capability to offer low minimum order quantities with unlimited SKU’s.
What does sustainability mean to your organization?
It means a lot to us. We recently joined Project Waterfall which supports global coffee growers with access to clean water. We use digital print technology which means we use less energy. Also, our production processes are automated which means less paper and we recycle our ink canisters to support the circular economy.
With much built-up excitement and anticipation, Sintercafe made its triumphant return from November 9th through November 12th, 2022 at the Los Sueños Marriott in Costa Rica. The first event of its kind since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was welcomed with open arms and boasted record attendance with over 600 attendees! The attendee list included many National Coffee Association members and representatives, including our very own Bill Murray, President and CEO of the National Coffee Association (NCA), who delivered a keynote entitled “Consumers, Coffee, and Change: The Evolving U.S. Market.” He also served on a panel of coffee association executives to discuss global challenges facing coffee and how association are uniquely positioned to help.
Janet Colley Morse and Kyle Bawot
In addition to providing a platform for many great lectures and customer/client interaction, the event saw the inaugural launch of a collaboration between NCA Next Gen, SCTA Next Gen, and Sintercafe Next Gen with a beach cleanup and paddle boarding experience. The NCA Next Gen Council is looking forward to building upon this initiative and collaborating more with our Next Gen coffee counterparts around the world!
Hear from some of our NCA Next Gen Council members below regarding their experiences at Sintercafe 2022:
“What a great feeling to be back amongst colleagues and friends at Sintercafe 2022! The dynamic of finally being able to attend an in-person event was truly wonderful. Our very own NCA Next Gen Council members were lucky enough to be invited to participate in a “beach cleanup and paddleboarding” event on Thursday afternoon! This creative and inclusive activity gave us the opportunity to begin to explore the synergies between our Council and other established and blossoming Next Gen groups developing across the globe. Attendance was high, moods were even higher, and we are very much looking forward to seeing even more familiar faces in Tampa!
Further, it seemed that there were more and more new Next-Gen-aged participants. This is great to see, and we look forward to bringing more and more young coffee professionals into the fold of the NCA Next Gen!”
-Janet Colley Morse (NCA Next Gen Chair) & Kyle Bawot (NCA Next Gen Vice Chair)
“The event was very well attended by an extremely diverse group of industry members. Producers, exporters, cooperatives, importers, and roasters all flocked to Sintercafe in droves. To me, this is what makes Sintercafe unique in our industry. Nowhere else can you have almost every member of the coffee supply chain, sitting down together, in a meeting, talking about our lives and experiences, negotiating additional business, or making new friends.
It connects roasters to producers, exporters to warehouse keepers, and CEOs to first-year attendees. This was my first Sintercafe and most certainly will not be my last, particularly for that reason.”
Mike Vilarino, Business Integration Manager with Baronet Coffee, sat down with Wim Abbing, President and CEO of Probat and current NCA Board Member. Probat is an industry-leading coffee plant and machinery equipment manufacturer headquartered in Emmerich, Germany. Because of the length of the conversation with Mike, this will be a two-part interview. Part one will largely focus on Wim’s early years and his initial time at Probat. Part two will focus on his experience in the coffee industry and his advice to the next generation.
Vilarino: To jump right into it, let’s rewind to before you began your career. Tell me a little bit about your education, — did you attend university? If so, what did you major in?
Abbing: For the full story, I went to high school with the youngest daughter of Hans Von Gimborn (then CEO of Probat). We met briefly in kindergarten and were from the same town, Emmerich, Germany. We ended up getting married and having children together!
To answer your question, though, I was drafted into the German military following my high school graduation. I spent about 18 months serving as a soldier prior to enrolling in university.
I attended a university in the northern part of Germany. Unlike the US, German students begin with classes in their major instead of initially focusing on general liberal arts studies. My major was in economics, which had me studying financial markets and learning concepts in monetary policy. Naturally, I set my sights on a career in banking and eventually landed at a German commercial bank, where I worked for the first six years of my career. Near the end of my time at the bank, I found myself unhappy with what I was doing. I felt that I was unfulfilled, and I remember thinking to myself ‘I really don’t want to die in this job.’
Coincidentally, around the same time, I was talking to my father-in-law, Mr. Von Gimborn. He knew that I was unhappy at the bank and said to me ‘Well, Wim, we don’t have any family members at the company’ (Probat). It was now 1999 and Mr. Von Gimborn had retired from his position as CEO of Probat but remained chairman of the board. I remember him going on to say, ‘it would be nice to have a family member at the company again.’
I decided to take my father-in-law up on the not-so-subtle offer and joined Probat in the treasury department in 1999. Because of my background majoring in economics and working at a bank, it was natural for me to start out in an area that focused on the finances of the company. I quickly moved up the ranks in the finance department at Probat, moving from analyst to controller and ultimately rising to CFO within two years.
So, what was your day-to-day like at this point?
Abbing: To be honest, Mike, it was a nice, quiet office job. The year was 2000 and my fourth child was just born. At work, my day-to-day was consistent with any other CFO of a midsized German company. We had just acquired a Brazilian business, which took me on the road quite a bit, but not nearly as much as I would be in the future. What was clear, however, was that I did not want to have any face-to-face time with our customers. I was happy being in the background and enjoying a more back-office role. I had my spreadsheets and numbers and was content giving those numbers and my opinions to someone else to make decisions.
I was now 35 years old and two or so years had gone by. Out of the blue, my then-boss, the CEO of Probat, left the company.
I remember my father-in-law, still chairman of the board, saying to me, ‘This is your chance. Do you want to step up and run the company together with Stephan Lange (then CSO)?’ Before he and the board looked for a replacement as CEO, they decided to offer a Co-CEO position to both me and Stephan, a position which we both accepted.
I started as CEO in 2002 and was 35 years old, which at that time seemed very young. I remember various partners, customers, and vendors commenting about my age – and to be frank, I was very young for a CEO. But, as I said earlier, the business was structured differently than it is today, so leadership was split between myself as CEO in Germany, and Stephan, who ran the United States operations. It was clear from the beginning that I was the introvert, happy to be in the background. And Stephan was the opposite, a man who enjoyed attending shows, visiting customers, and traveling around the world. That type of outward-facing role was a role that I had not even begun to think about as a position that would make me happy.
Stepping into the CEO position, I would have assumed that you would be forced to be much more customer-facing. Is that not a fair assumption?
I still tried to hide a bit in the background. I was happy to concede the client-facing responsibilities to my colleague in the US.
While he continued to drive the sales side, I had quite a bit to do internally back in Germany. Unfortunately, at this time there were some HR issues primarily driven by the generational change taking place within our company. One of the challenges that ultimately arise from family businesses is that people tend to stay forever. Especially where I was from, most people who entered the business never left. And because of that, Probat was unable to offer the next generation the ability to grow, sometimes waiting until lifelong employees either retired or died! When I joined the company, my task was fixing this and figuring out a path forward. We changed a lot of these types of situations, and as a result, many people left.
Several years went by until the financial crisis in 2008-2009 hit. Stephan ended up leaving Probat and the board ultimately gave me full responsibility to not only take over his role but to run the entire global business as the sole CEO, a change from how we had structured the company over the past 7 years. My first thing to do now? Go out and see customers.
After Stephan Lange left the company in 2009, Wim Abbing became the sole CEO of Probat
So that was a big change for you?
Abbing: Oh yes! The bright lights were now on me. And to tell you the truth, Mike, it was amazingly interesting! Probat’s customers are extremely diverse. Our equipment can be found anywhere from shops with small shop roasters all the way up to big corporations like Nestle. What really makes it fun, however, is the mid-sized companies. I was now traveling the world to see customers big and small and to tell you the truth, it was an eye-opening experience. My travels took me from Japan and South Korea all the way to the US and Africa. Maybe even surprising myself, I was having fun meeting customers, talking to people, and ultimately learning what it took to be CEO and run a company.
So, you started running the company in 2009, and I assume you learned a lot at that point. It was basically a new role for you. What did you learn about yourself? To bring the conversation towards coffee, what did you learn about the coffee industry as the now sole CEO?
Abbing: What I learned about myself was that it is important to try new things. I learned not to be afraid of making mistakes; I’ve made mistakes just like everybody does. As far as I saw it, customers accept mistakes. And adding onto that, the industry itself is one big family. I learned how important it is to talk to people across the industry, from customers to competitors. While talking to competitors, I never talk about prices, customers, etc., I talk to learn, and I talk to understand!
Another thing I learned was that Germans tend to have an issue with their language skills. You always hear a German! Our accents are strong, and Germans sometimes shy away from speaking English or other languages. Traveling across the world and speaking with customers, I learned to not be afraid of that. There’s no need to hide your heritage, language, or nationality. You should be proud and embrace everything that comes along with those parts of you. To summarize, I learned that our market is so amazingly international, diverse, and understanding.
There are many markets that Probat is involved in that are so much narrower than coffee as well. As an example of how expansive the coffee market is, about a month ago we held a symposium in Emmerich, where one of our customers spoke about his coffee business in Mongolia! It was eye-opening! Coffee only began being sold in Mongolia in 1992. Securing green coffee in a landlocked country was just one of many challenges our customers faced. These and other obstacles are overcome daily by members across our industry. It makes our industry so unique.
Thank you again to Wim on behalf of the NCA Next Gen Communications Committee. Please stay tuned for part two with the CEO of Probat, Wim Abbing, to learn more about his experience in the coffee industry and advice to the next generation!
Company: Toddy, LLC Location: Loveland, CO NCA Member Since: 2016 Website:toddycafe.com Twitter: @toddycafe Facebook: @toddycafe Instagram: @toddycafe
What does TODDY, LLC do?
Founded in 1964, Toddy, LLC supplies home users and cafes around the world with solutions for brewing exceptional cold brewed coffee and tea. Today the Colorado-based company provides everything from the industry’s first cold brew sensory analysis tools to popular commercial brewing systems and models for home use.
What drives your passion for this industry?
Education – and the opportunity to share what we know about cold brew with other coffee enthusiasts around the world. We’re also highly motivated by the chance to make exceptional coffee available to everyone who wants to try it.
The best part of working in coffee is:
Amazing coffee. And the people who appreciate it.
What’s your perfect cup of coffee?
At Toddy, we like to mix things up and try all kinds of coffee, but we also lean toward being cold brew purists. There’s nothing quite like a fresh cold brew over ice.
What sets your organization apart?
An intentional lack of pretense and a passion for customer service. Team Toddy is a diverse but inclusive group of talented and fun individuals with a single goal: to help cold brew enthusiasts brew delicious coffee and tea. We love helping people discover how to cold brew, experiment with brewing variables, and assist with recipe development until they reach their desired results – whether that’s at home or in a busy cafe.
What’s the most important issue facing the coffee industry?
Sustainability in general as well as a strategy and the tools to support industry growth amid climate change. Another critical issue is that we need to find ways to ensure that coffee producers earn a livable wage. So more than one issue, but all are important.
National Coffee Association Blog 