Happy International Coffee Day dear coffee lovers! ☕️
Coffee connects people. But the way people choose and enjoy it is changing, and so are the rules for growth. Over the past months, Prof. Dr. Carsten Leo Demming as well the amazing students from BWL-Food Management Duale Hochschule Baden-Württemberg and I have worked on a new study:
New Rules in the Coffee Market: Growth Requires Rethinking.
We identify six interconnected barriers to growth:
On the consumer side:
- A generational shift: Younger consumers are developing different coffee habits.
- Blurring beverage categories: Coffee increasingly competes with other drinks for the same needs.
- Changing consumption occasions: When, where and why people drink coffee is evolving.
On the business side:
- Risk-averse structures: Established processes can slow down new ideas.
- The positioning trap: Brands without clear added value are squeezed between private label and premium offerings.
- The value creation trap: Higher prices and promotions can mask stagnant volumes and weak underlying growth.
As I put it in the study: “The coffee industry is excellent at optimising existing business models. But that strength can become a weakness when the market changes fundamentally.” Together, these barriers raise a practical question: How can we make coffee relevant in new moments of people’s lives and create lasting value for the industry?
Our empirical study of coffee consumers in Germany reveals clear differences between Gen Z and older generations. Younger consumers drink less coffee but they also enjoy it at different times of day and for different reasons.
Which of these six barriers do you see most clearly in your market?
If you would like to explore what these findings mean for your business, I would be glad to talk.
Download (Currently available only in German)
Article about the Study
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