Inauguration of the new Production Site Café Michel

On February 9, the Café Michel cooperative inaugurated its new production site. A new workshop and its new offices, on Bordeaux Métropole, in Pessac exactly. The inauguration took place with the presence of Stéphane COMAR, director of the SCOP Café Michel, David POUYANNE, CEO of the Essor Group, Franck RAYNAL, the current Mayor of Pessac, and Pascal DUFORESTEL, Regional Councillor of Nouvelle-Aquitaine delegated to the Social and Solidarity Economy.

Yuridia - michel coffee - bordeaux business

A route as close as possible to nature

Since 1981, Café Michel has been a family business. In 2007, the Cafés Richard brand offered to buy them back. The company’s employees, fearing that their specificity and their biological and fair positioning would disappear, refused the offer.

Indeed, they are moving towards a cooperative,or SCOP. In a SCOP, the majority employee partners retain control of the main decisions. Profits are also better distributed. In addition to the legal reserve of 15%, the associated employees receive from 25 to 40% of the profits made (1).

Stéphane COMAR has therefore chosen to return to the brand’s historic territory, in Pessac. During the four years that followed this transition to a cooperative, the identification of the 100% organic brand and fair trade products was put in place. Thus, preferring the development of small agriculture, Café Michel wishes to offer products whose aroma, highlighted, would be intact … and intense.

Today, the brand offers coffees of eleven different origins,each with its own specificities. It also offers complementary products. Tea, sugar or chocolate optimize the logistics part.

The success of the brand is such that between 2012 and 2015, it doubles its production. It has indeed increased from 190 tons in 20agri12, against 370 tons in 2015. It must be said that coffee consumption is gaining ground in France (2).

Infographic coffee consumption in France FIFG C-10
Infographic FIFG – C-10

The urgency is to improve the industrytool,and for that, it is necessary to invest in more efficient machines. The historic factory, located in downtown Pessac, could not be preserved. That’s why Café Michel looked for a new building to set up its production. Thus, the company gains space, and improves the working comfort of employees.

Founder cafés michel - Bordeaux Business
David Pouyanne, head of the Essor Group, in Canéjan.

New issues, new premises

Thus, the builder and real estate developer ESSOR, led by David POUYANNE, located in Canéjan, began work on the premises in January 2017. He completed them in December of the same year. The first delivery then represents two buildings with a total area of 3500m² including 200m² for the Café Michel brand. A strong commitment to great needs in technicality and development.

Very quickly, coffee production tripled,from one ton per day in the old factory to more than 3 tons per day. In addition, investment in more sophisticated machines has significantly increased the quality of the coffees produced. It is thus possible to “vary” the blends and intensities of the coffees according to the tastes of the consumer in order to “bring out the aromatic profile”. While improving production costs.

This increase in production has had an impact on the company’s activity: with annual sales up 30% over the past 4 years, the cooperative has been able to recruit 7 new employees since 2010. A company that is developing little by little in the department of Gironde.

Inauguration Event Cafés Michel - Bordeaux Business
A desire to develop many sales channels for Café Michel

Resolutely specialized sales channels

Café Michel’s brand, Terra Etica, is available in specialized organic stores, such as Biocoop, Bio C Bon or Naturéo. However, they do not appear in the organic spaces of supermarkets. A market that does not correspond to the one targeted by Café Michel.

In addition, Café Michel has approached the AMAP (Association for the Maintenance of Peasant Agriculture) and producers’ shops. The goal? Offer its products with a real in-depth work on the range of products presented, and the explanation of the flavors on each packaging, to better guide customers.

Moreover, the quality of coffee is clearly increasing, so that it is compared to wine, with a vocabulary such as“grand cru”,“acidity” or “length in the mouth”. This is a challenge, where you have to introduce consumers to the terroir. To do this, Café Michel invites its customers to come to the premises during open days, the next of which will take place on March 23, for the day of coffee.

Café Michel, listening to its producers

The company does its utmost to ensure that producers are well paid. And more often than not, more than with other brands.

We buy coffee beans 30-40% more expensive than world prices, which impacts more than 35,000 families.

Stéphane COMAR

A coffee in the end, which is not much more expensive than that of the competition, but which corresponds to a more ethical approach, more respectful of the product and the producers.

At the event, Yuridia PILLIMUE and Alberto ORTIZ, respectively President of the Fondo Paez Cooperative for Café Colombia, and Representative of the MAJOMUT Cooperative in Chiapas, for Café Mexico, were present, partners of Café Michel for ten years.

For them, respect for the origin of the products and the guarantee of the traceability of the product makes it possible to preserve the quality of the latter. This also creates added value for small producers. What they appreciate is this close relationship, where they go to their customers’ premises, and where they come to meet the operators. In addition to respect for nature with the Organic farming,Café Michel is imbued with a real social and environmental will.

A relationship that keeps the buyer’s commitment, especially in Colombia where the National Coffee Federation does not have the will to turn to the production of organic coffee. Plants that last longer and produce grains of a much higher quality than traditional, non-organic grains.

Since its installation in its new pessacais building, Café Michel follows the thread of a fragrant cruise, always in search of flavours and aromas mastered… for a coffee from the end of the world, which makes travel with every sip.

Sources:

  1. BPI Encyclopedia, “The SCOP”.
  2. “Nearly 1 in 3 consumers consume coffee outside the home,mainly at the workplace (76%) or in a café – bar – brasserie – restaurant (40%).” Study 2028 FIFG – C10.
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