This blog from Spiller & Tait discusses the challenges facing the coffee industry, including rising prices due to crop losses and increased costs. Despite these challenges, Spiller & Tait has chosen to maintain the quality of its specialty coffee, even if it means raising prices. The blog emphasizes that buying fresh coffee beans and making coffee at home is still more cost-effective than buying from cafes. While the price increase may be unwelcome, Spiller & Tait is committed to minimizing its impact on customers by reducing costs elsewhere in the business.
Coffee roasters are facing a significant challenge as the cost of green coffee beans has surged due to climate and COVID-19 pressures. Extreme frosts in Brazil, the largest coffee exporter, coupled with shipping bottlenecks and political protests in Colombia, have driven up bean prices by nearly 43% in 2021. While larger roasters like Costa and Starbucks can buffer these increases by purchasing beans well in advance, smaller roasters, including Spiller & Tait, are forced to raise prices. Spiller & Tait, which buys coffee several months ahead, has delayed passing on these cost increases but will implement a 7% price increase across its range starting from September 27th. The company is also exploring cost-saving measures to mitigate future price hikes, emphasizing its commitment to making specialty coffee affordable despite these challenges.
While we strive to offer all S&T customers and community members great service and delicious, fresh coffee. We know we don’t get it right every time. So we felt it was time to formalise a practice we have employed since we started Spiller & Tait, way back in 2014! And that is why we are introducing a Satisfaction Guarantee promise.
As we approach the end of a rather unpredictable year, we would like to take a moment to thank our amazing community for all the support we have received this year. Despite the events of 2020, we've managed to have a good year, with new products being released and exciting plans for the future. None of this would have been possible without the support from you.
The significant number of Spiller & Tait customers who make multiple, repeat, purchases of our coffee is well above average for on-line coffee roasters. We believe this is due to the freshness of coffee bought from our website, the wonderful flavour of our coffees and, increasingly, the rewards we offer to loyal customers. There are now plenty of reasons to order all your coffee from Spiller & Tait!
Across our own website and Amazon UK, we now have over 1,000 Customer Reviews for our coffees. This includes almost 600 Reviews for our ever popular Signature Blend. An analysis of these Reviews confirms we are consistently delivering on the customer promise which we believe makes Spiller & Tait different to other brands of coffee.
We are delighted to announce thatthe winner of the £100 Spiller & Tait coupon for our in-home coffee survey competition is Mel P. Mel has already used her £100 coupon for a purchase of delicious Spiller & Tait coffee and some coffee making kit, including an excellent Hario Hand Grinder. She wrote to us to say:
"This is amazing! Thank you so much! I can't wait to start grinding my beans!”
Mel P
Mel was one of almost 300 participants in our first annual In-home Coffee Survey. The results of our survey are being compiled and we look forward to sharing them with you next week. We’ve been delighted with the level of participation in this inaugural in-home survey, which we conducted due to a lack of other market research into domestic coffee consumption habits.
At the start of 2018, we started a dialogue with our customers to understand their coffee making and drinking habits at home. We’ve been so intrigued by the initial insights from these discussions that we've decided to try and learn more and establish whether our customers are showing early signs of a revolution in the way coffee is being made at home in the UK.