Kicking Horse Coffee Co. Case Study, Leo Johnson, & Elana Rosenfeld, Business Operation, Sell Organic and Fair-Trade Products - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task -                 

Kicking Horse Coffee Co. Case Study 

Leo Johnson and Elana Rosenfeld are the husband and wife team responsible for the creation and production of Canada’s number one organic and fair-trade coffee company, Kicking Horse Coffee Co. Founded in 1996 and located in the Canadian Rockies in the  British Columbia town of Invermere (population 3,600), the company employs fifteen people. Even thought the location is remote, and the number of staff is small, Kicking  Horse Coffee Co manages to sell more than 10,000 kg of coffee each week to grocery stores throughout Canada, The United States, and Holland. Revenue projections for  2006 are $10 million from the company’s sales of thirty different blends of organic and fair-trade coffee, organic and fair-trade teas, and organic chocolate. (Organic products are produced naturally, without pesticides or additives. Fair-trade products come from  farmers in disadvantaged countries. These products are brought to European and  North American markets through aid organizations or co-operatives, no middlemen,  ensuring that the farmers do not have to accept unfair prices in order to sell their  products internationally.) 

In 2003, the couple was awarded the Young Entrepreneurship Award for British  Columbia by the Business Development Bank of Canada in recognition of the success of Kicking Horse Coffee Co. So, what is the secret to (and the story of) the Kicking Horse  Coffee Co.’s success? Elana (born in Toronto) and Leo (born in Fredericton) first met in British Columbia.  Together and separately, they had worked in restaurants, opened a fruit stand, and 

purchased and operated a cafe. In fact, the idea of Kicking Horse Coffee Co. came about because the couple had difficulties obtaining organic coffee, which they wanted to serve in their cafe. Specifically, Elana and Leo wanted to remain true to their ethical principles while providing coffee to their customers. So began the Kicking Horse Coffee co., a company founded on ethical beliefs that included promoting market interest in organic and fair-trade coffee. The fair-trade feature means that Kicking Horse Coffee Co. Purchases their organic coffee beans from small business co-operatives (co-ops).

Co-ops are businesses that are both owned and operated by the individuals who supply the product. Members of the co-ops (such as the coffee-bean farmers) are able to negotiate for prices that give them a higher standard of living. In addition to providing individuals with a better standard of living, the fair-trade requirements for coffee production state that certain environmental standards which include restricting the use of potentially harmful agrochemicals, must be followed. Elana and Leo not only import their raw, organic coffee beans from countries such as Sumatra, N Nicaragua, and Cuba, they also visit their producers’ plantations to see for themselves the benefits that fair trade can bring to farmers.  

In choosing to operate in the organic fair-trade coffee market, the founders were able to both uphold their ethical beliefs without compromise and select a market niche that had yet to be saturated with competing entrepreneurs. Indeed, the couple spotted an opportunity for organic and fair-trade coffee in the grocery-store market and pursued it.  Now, they are represented in distribution outlets including Thrifty Foods, Canada  Safeway Ltd., IGA, Save-On-Foods, Urban Fare, and Loblaws. In addition to grocery stores, Kicking Horse Coffee is also available for online purchase directly from the  Kicking Horse Coffee Inc. website. 

Questions 
1. How is Kicking Horse Coffee Co. Different from its competitors? Why is it important to Elana and Leo that these differences be incorporated into their business operation? 
2. What benefits has Kicking Horse Coffee Co. Gained from its decision to sell organic and fair-trade products? Who else benefits from this decision? How?

This Management Assignment has been solved by our Management Experts at My Uni Paper. Our Assignment Writing Experts are efficient to provide a fresh solution to this question. We are serving more than 10000+Students in Australia, UK & US by helping them to score HD in their academics. Our Experts are well trained to follow all marking rubrics & referencing style.

Be it a used or new solution, the quality of the work submitted by our assignment Experts remains unhampered. You may continue to expect the same or even better quality with the used and new assignment solution files respectively. There’s one thing to be noticed that you could choose one between the two and acquire an HD either way. You could choose a new assignment solution file to get yourself an exclusive, plagiarism (with free Turnitin file), expert quality assignment or order an old solution file that was considered worthy of the highest distinction.