Who’s drinking coffee?
Posted in Coffee Service, Miri Market, research by Anne
Since making the decision to start our coffee service business, I’ve been doing some research (of course!) on coffee consumption. One very interesting site is The National Coffee Association of USA, Inc.
Here are some of the more interesting highlights from their National Coffee Drinking Trends 2008 study:
• 17% of the adult population consumed a gourmet coffee beverage on a daily basis in 2008
compared with 14% in 2007.
• In 2007, past-day consumption of coffee surpassed that of soft drinks for the first time. While the gap narrowed in 2008, daily consumption of coffee is still directionally higher.
• 18 to 24 year olds are becoming serious coffee drinkers. In 2005, only 26 percent of young adults in that age bracket considered themselves coffee drinkers. By 2007, that figure was up to 37%, making the 18-24 year old coffee market the fastest growing segment of the market. Older adults, in the 40 to 59 year old bracket, are also big coffee drinkers. This age group increased from 59 percent to 61 percent over the previous year, and those age 60 and over report the most coffee consumers - 74 percent of adults in that age bracket reported that they drink coffee every day.
• Consumption of cups per day by consumers age 18-24 continued to trend higher in 2008. Young adults who drank coffee consumed an average of 3.2 cups per day as compared with 3.1 in 2007, a significant increase over 2005’s level of 2.5 cups per day.
So, coffee consumption is going up, but what about the economy? Coffee houses aren’t doing so well these days, are they? The International Coffee Organization released a report in February on the “World Economic Crisis and the Coffee Sector”:
Early reports show that food sales are holding up better than those of non-food
products. It seems that big chains are competing by cutting prices rather than losing market
share or seeing the volume of sales decrease, even at the expense of profits. In the developed
country markets of North America, Europe and Japan, which account for approximately
58% of world consumption, coffee is a staple good that represents only a small fraction of
consumer spending. The information available suggests that coffee consumption in these
markets is holding up well. Instead of limiting overall intake, consumers are more likely to
shift from out-of-home to in-home consumption and from higher cost products to cheaper
brands. This trend to less expensive products is corroborated by the strong results reported
by discount food retailers and by reduced earnings in the speciality coffee sector in the last
quarter of 2008.
Increasing coffee consumption, especially among young adults, bodes well for the future of the coffee industry, despite the downturn in the economy. These coffee-drinkers know a good cappuccino when they taste it, and our Miri Market coffee service will allow businesses to offer barista-style coffee drinks to their employees and clients for a fraction of the coffee house price - a great thing in this economy.
