Espresso, Macchiato, Ristretto, Cold Drip, Long Black, Flat White, Cappuccino, Piccolo, Bulletproof, or something else? In a culture where smashed avo is a societal debate and latte art is a very much a real thing, it’s clear that Australians take their café rituals seriously.
Just as serious about the café scene, Australia’s leading digital hospitality platform, Ordermentum, have announced a global first ‘Coffee Index’.
Designed to empower SME’s with real time data, Ordermentum is revolutionising the once difficult task of accurate forecasting and order volume for coffee roasters and cafes.
The ”Coffee Index” is a real-time indicator of the volume and price of wholesale specialty coffee sold nationally across Australia. The index analyses blends, single origin and decaf coffee beans; is based on Business to Business orders from café to supplier; and is calculated weekly.
The Coffee Index provides live, meaningful insights, which allows suppliers to better understand the week-to-week ups and downs in the context of the wider market.
For example, did you know that coffee traders take the biggest hit during the July school holidays as opposed to the Christmas school holidays? Or that over the last twelve months the amount of coffee bought by cafes in Australia has increased by 3.5 per cent.
It’s clear – Aussies just can’t get enough coffee! These are the kind of trend reports that Ordermentum are able to provide to Australian coffee roasters and wholesalers, in real time, through a global first ‘Coffee Index.’
Exhibitors at the Melbourne International Coffee Expo in March were captivated with the Index findings and the benefits Ordermentum’s forecasting can have on their bottom line. The data has been curated from twelve per cent of all specialty coffee roasters across Australia who are using the Ordermentum platform, which equates to over ten per cent of all coffee traded in Australia.
Ordermentum’s goal is to make Australian businesses (the most advanced independent specialty trade in the world) market leaders in technology. The Coffee Index and the data sitting behind it enable Ordermentum to help roasters with their consumption forecasting and predictive ordering.
“We’re in a unique position where we are able to take the 55,000 orders through our platform each month and turn the data into insights that can really help a lot of businesses. Smaller coffee roasters will almost never have that much data, so being able to provide these insights will have a big impact on the industry,” says CEO of Ordermentum Andrew Low.
Already, Australian roasters such as ONA, Little Marionette, Double Roasters, Proud Mary and Gabriel are enjoying the key benefits of the Coffee Index including insights for:
- Quality – The index addresses quality by assisting in managing coffee freshness. Best drunk between 4-14 days from roast, a more consistent production plan will limit the variation in roast dates the retailer receives, which ultimately results in millions of happy consumers.
- Customer Service – The demand forecast (orders placed) is moderated by market movements for holidays and days of the week trading variances to ensure there is always stock available.
- Commercial viability of the wholesalers – more accurate demand forecasts allow roasters to hold lower par levels for stock, improving working capital and reducing wastage. Ordermentum intends to help small businesses such as the roaster who burnt $5,000 worth of coffee because they planned their consumption around public holidays incorrectly.
“Most roasters know the obvious public holiday dates, but we’ve been really impressed by the Ordermentum Coffee Index being able to provide more perceptive insights, like when two trends collide in certain years, and which holidays also experience a slump before or after as well as during. That information completely transforms the way we forecast, and will make us a much more efficient business,” says roaster and owner of ONA Coffee, Sasa Sestic.
Ordermentum are developing data, that up until today, has been reserved only for the grocery sector and multinational manufacturers via expensive scan sales reports, is now more accessible to wider sectors. Ordermentum are anticipating a specialty Bread Index, a Milk Index and wider hospitality Index later in 2018.
“The thriving Specialty Coffee Industry in Australia is built on people who are in it for the love of it, so we’re thrilled to be able to support our passionate roasters in their business growth,” says Andrew Low.
