Its smell did not disappear from Le Havre with containment. On the contrary! Coffee is still there.
Coffee greats adapt their production
Among the big black gold industrialists in the first place as at Legal, things do not seem to have changed much in this particular period.
However, new things had to be implemented.
We decided to adapt the packaging of traditional bags to “big bags” which contain 1 ton against 60 kgs per jute bag. So this ton there requires less handling for our operators and therefore less risk.
Benoît Chatenay, director green coffee at Legal
In reality, production continues well on the Le Havre site, but with 25% fewer staff. Workstations have been spaced out and versatility has become the rule for most of the employees present on site.
We are lucky in our society because people had already been trained in several positions and therefore, we were able to reassign people especially from the milling stage to packaging and roasters sometimes became temporarily millers
Stéphane Jouanguy, production manager at Legal.
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We always have coffee yes, but at home!
This adaptation has enabled the company, which sells 90% of its coffee via mass distribution, to meet exceptional demand at the start of containment.
Deprived of “little black” at the counter or in the coffee machine of their company, coffee lovers quickly rushed to packages and pods, sold in supermarkets, to taste their favorite drink at home.
Orders returned to roughly normal, but an increase of 20-30% was seen at the start of the confined period. Restaurants and hotels are closed, so coffee consumers have no choice but to stay at home.
Benoît Chatenay, director green coffee at Legal
Barely independent roasters
However, this temporary improvement did not manifest itself in the same way for all professionals in the sector.
Coffee artisans were the first victims of the crisis and the future looks very bleak there.
In Ocean Coffee for example, Thierry Lesueur, the owner of this small SME, is worried.
This independent roaster makes 80% of its sales in companies. But at this point, most of his clientele is closed and his business is collapsing.
Everything that was delivered in early March is in the business without being consumed, and the stocks present will not be consumed until June. So we will have a difficult passage of two, three months.
Consequently, to maintain a minimum turnover, Thierry Lesueur, keeps his small shop open where only regulars come by appointment and the entrepreneur has also developed online sales with free home delivery.
However, even if the orders multiply, its activity is not yet out of the woods and the concern for the future is very present.
In reality, with the national drop in consumption and the risk of a shortage of supply by producing countries in the long term, the coffee market as a whole remains very uncertain.
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