Friday, March 29, 2024

Logo Central America Link

Coffee and cash

Friday, January 28, 2011


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A growing trend of offering high-quality coffee and coffee-based beverages in attractive settings, suggests interesting opportunities in the region’s beverage and food sector.

The latest evidence of this tendency is the announcement last week by Multi Inversiones, the Guatemalan group which owns the Pollo Campero brand, that it is entering into a joint venture with Café Barista, another local company, which owns and operates 16 specialty coffee shops.

The venture, named Cantata, merges the financial strength and management expertise of Multi Inversiones, with the specialized products offered by Café Barista.

Cantata plans in the near future to open eight more outlets in Guatemala, and one in El Salvador. Medium-term, the company will expand to Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama.

The new venture follows the opening last August in El Salvador of the region’s first Starbucks, by the local company Corporación de Franquicias Americanas.

Cantata is not planning to franchise its Café Barista stores, at least not in the near future. Starbucks, however, is interested in expanding throughout Central America, via franchises.

Opportunities

  • Coffee shop brands
  • Master franchisors and franchisees
  • Marketers