TRIESTE (Italy) – Sandalj Trading Company, an Italian leader in the importation and exportation of green coffee beans, confirms last year’s growth performance and consolidates its management and organisational structure.
On 3rd July last, the present Board of Directors (PHOTO) of this Trieste based Company, which continues to perform successfully, was reconfirmed in office for the three-year period 2014 – 2016.
“Business is progressing in compliance with the entrepreneurial project devised with the utmost professionalism and far-sightedness of Vincenzo Sandalj,” stresses Maurizio Rossmann, Managing Director in charge of Administration and Finance, “and, just over a year after his passing away, the Company can confirm its strength in the high end coffee sector.”
The Sandalj Trading Company has always been a cutting-edge in the green coffee market, and currently represents a cultural patrimony for the whole sector. Its identity, specialising in a ceaseless quest for product and service quality, allows the Company to constantly improve its commercial offering and to significantly stand out in the market, both on the national and international markets.
Enrico Venuti, Chairman and Managing Director in charge of Sales, explains the Company’s mission as follows: “First and foremost, our focus on innovation results from Vincenzo Sandalj’s philosophy, from his intense curiosity and his constant urge to surpass existing standards. This is one of the reasons why we have well deserved to be part of the Italian business fabric that strives for excellence and have become a reference point for other players.”
Moreover, innovation belongs to a seasonal agricultural product like coffee by definition. New plantations, new producers and growers, climate and process changes result in a raw material that is always different with new characteristics to discover.
“The ability to grasp these changes and communicate them to the customers,” Venuti continues, “is part of the Company’s rationale, and attracts positive feedback especially from younger players, who are the first to share in pursuing the goal of high quality standards and steer the market towards special coffees.” As for its customers on the Italian market, the Company can attest another important fact: coffee roasters who offer a superior quality coffee with a story to tell – without focusing solely on cost-cutting – are thriving companies who are not suffering in this crisis period.
Carrying on with his analysis of sector trends, Edy Bieker, Managing Director in charge of Quality and Training, looks for those deeply-involved customers among the small-scale coffee roasters scattered across the globe: “What they want is to offer a superior traceable coffee to their customers and consumers,” he says, “Thanks to this approach, they are able to stand out in the market and to contribute to the culture and knowledge of coffee, another of the pillars Sandalj rests on.”
In this respect, a gauge of the interest in the Company’s work is the rise in the number of training courses at the coffee academy – Accademia del Caffè (a brand name registered by Sandalj Trading Company), which are designed for both foreign and Italian customers.
A further development reported by Edy Bieker is the parallel demand for coffee blends that often supplement the single-origin range. Sandalj’s original blends are appreciated for the quality of the coffee types they contain and also because they are packed and sold in 30kg bags.
In fact, the quantity of green coffee that can be purchased is an important aspect for customers, who generally prefer smaller solutions. Aware of this requirement, the Company was the first to supply 15kg and 30kg barrels of prized Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, previously available only in much larger barrels; similarly, it was the first to sell traceable single origins in boxes containing two vacuum packs of coffee. Once again as regards Jamaica Blue Mountain, the Company from Trieste is the only one that can provide DNA certification for every lot sold.
The Company’s stability on the market and its growth stem from a project that the owners are pursuing also by renewing the mandate of the present Board of Directors, whose members include the already mentioned Edy Bieker Managing Director in charge of Quality and Training at the Coffee Academy, Maurizio Rossmann, Managing Director in charge of Administration, Finance and Control, and Enrico Venuti, Chairman and Managing Director in charge of Sales.
A few months ago, a new Director joined the Board: the majority shareholder Theresa Sandalj, daughter of the late lamented Vincenzo, who recently took her degree in Economics at London’s University of Westminster, and who is currently attending a Master in Finance at the Hult International Business School, again in London.
Within the company’s tightly knit team is Mauro Capellino the Export Manager with 21 years of experience in the coffee trading world, 19 of which working in the Company. Sandalj Trading Co. is closely supported by an internal team of 11 experts in different fields and backed up by a solid and professional sales network operating both in Italy and abroad.
The current Chairman Enrico Venuti, already in the coffee sector back in 1980, worked side by side with Vincenzo Sandalj for 26 years, tenaciously and successfully pursuing their shared entrepreneurial dream. Maurizio Rossmann has worked for the Company for 15 years with his international finance expertise, thanks also to a previous work experience with a historic maritime shipping firm.
Part of the coffee world since 1976, with 24 years at Sandalj and around 35,000 cups of espresso tasted every year, Edy Bieker has helped to create original approaches that fit well with Vinko’s far-sighted vision.
Sandalj Trading Company Spa – Via Rossini, 14 – 34132 Trieste, Italy
Tel. +39 0406767911 – Fax +39 040360636 – info@sandalj.com – www.sandalj.com
