Specialist: The sales of the restaurants and cafes sector exceeded 6 billion riyals last January
During a meeting organized by the Small and Medium Enterprises Center in the Asharqia Chamber on Wednesday evening, March 23, 2022, Al-Awwam clarified a number of challenges facing specialized cafes, including: price fluctuations, which cause the average cost price to remain unstable, and the sector requires an experienced team to continue experimenting and selecting new varieties. From coffee to today's coffee drinks and drip coffee, in addition to planning the required stock of tools and coffee bags for resale.
Osama Al-Awam, the founding partner of the Roasting House, a member of the International Specialty Coffee Association, revealed several challenges facing investors in the field of specialty coffee, represented in the sustainability of supply, whether from roasters or due to the organization of the internal supply chain.
Al-Awwam pointed out that the café, which copied ideas from other regions without studying the needs of its customers, faces many challenges, including: using financial resources to reserve larger stocks than needed or difficult-to-move products, difficulty in managing cash, difficulty in successful marketing campaigns and lack of employee training.
Al-Awwam said that Saudi coffee is an essential element in the Saudi society, as the Kingdom is the largest importer of Ethiopian coffee, with a value of 496 million riyals in 2019, in addition to the fact that the taste is directed towards various flavors and tastes such as: specialized coffee and cold drinks, which encourages investment in this field.
Al-Awwam stressed that several incentives encourage investment in this sector, including, according to what the Saudi Central Bank announced, that the sales of the restaurants and cafes sector through points of sale in January 2022 exceeded the 6 billion riyals barrier, and the spending on restaurants and cafes in the first week after the reopening of orders Local restaurants and cafes achieved sales of more than 5 billion riyals in January 2021.
The public said that the most successful cafes focus on the continuity and stability of the quality of the basic and top-selling drinks, as well as providing some basic needs to support sales, and the vast category of successful cafes focus on the stability of the type of coffee for their most demanded drinks, and on some of the most common coffee sources in areas other than their own. , with the expectation of its success without studying the consumer’s need and environment, finding different ways of supplying (for example, a bi-monthly supply instead of a monthly one to reduce the volume of purchase at one time), searching for competitive options in establishing new branches or in upgrading equipment and tools, in addition to improving financial management and increasing training and creation of high-quality beverages and complementary products such as cakes and desserts.
