Wolfram, you took the word right out of my mind. I could not have expressed my feelings about Nestle’ sponsoring the event better than you did in your blog post.

if Nestle is sooooo evil don’t let yourself be used by such an evil competition.
But no, you’re telling us mission-lyrics, you don’t care if it’s for your own benefit.

You’re just the same kind of Marketing mechanism…

[...] an den Weltmeisterschaften in Bogota nimmt auf seinem Wolfredo Blog ebenfalls Stellung zum Thema Sponsoring durch Nestlé. [...]

I think having a syrup producer as a sponsor is not as bad as having an industrial coffee producer simply because they do not produce coffee and therefore their business practices do not collide as much with the ideas of the speciality coffee movement.

Nespresso is the complete opposite of the speciality coffee movement. They celebrate an automated way of making coffee which is contrary to handcrafting in every possible step of the coffee production process.

I also had some talks about that and wondered if it was Nestlé’s fault or if we as the speciality coffee community have been financially too weak to be in their place or whatever reason there might have been for this happening.

I think if I had been confronted with the danger of Nespresso being the Premium Sponsor for the WBC and someone had asked me for a donation for an organised campaign which was trying to raise the $60.000 in order to prevent that I would readily have done so.

So why not try to make a fund which acts as a WBC Premium Sponsor under the condition that “bad companies” are kept out? Of course this would raise the question on how to judge who is evil and who is good. How about some sort of ethical committee within the SCAE?

Also we have to become more widely recognised which means that the competitions have to be accessible to everybody even those that do not have anything to do with coffee because it’s those that we have to get in touch with in order to make them join our journey. We have to take the competitions from the middle to the end of the commodity chain and tell the end what’s happening at the beginning and show them what we do and how it differs from the others. That way we will see more speciality coffee being served and stronger companies within the speciality coffee scene.

For sure I know too little about the efforts that have been done in organising the WBC, but here these would be my thoughts:
Probably for many reasons participants as well as observers, perhaps even organizers, might not have considered Nestle to be the best of sponsors. However, I wonder which other sponsors were addressed and perhaps chose not to give their money or what other companies might be available and have the capacity to ramp up the sums (and perhaps commitment) to run a competition like this? Probably nobody will disagree with what you said.
For as long as there is no other sponsors, it is a question of WBC or no WBC. I currently am willing to accept Nestle and be thankful for the money, knowing that a) there are certain discrepancies in ethical values, b) I compromise for spreading knowledge of what good/better coffee is through publications and competitions like the WBC and c) appreciate the respect Nestle has towards the specialty coffee scene, because for sure they know that our perception of good coffee and the values we share are vastly different.
How would you decide if next year only Nestle would be available as a sponsor? Take the bitter pill or cancel?

How about crowdsourcing some funding? Do you think that might work? What’s a reasonable guess of how much money is needed?

Sebastian

A couple of things – I am perhaps either too old or too tired these days to achieve any sort of anger or indignation.

To be honest I was not paritcularly upset to see Nespresso sponsor the event. I would likely consider it a spectacular waste of money for them, but if they are going to waste money and in doing so benefit their competitors – fine by me.

I would have been upset if I thought that their sponsorship had driven people to their products – but I can’t imagine who (either at the event or online) watched and then went out and bought a capsule system.

All the baristas and audience members, and coffee people know what Nespresso is.

Some might argue that Nespresso gain some sort of credibility through the WBC. But to whom? Nespresso has a ridiculously strong, successful global brand. Their unlikely to start flaunting the WBC logo and bragging about being involved with baristas because the vast majority have absolutely no idea competitions even exist. Maybe they will – but I would bet that it would be one of their least successful advertising campaigns.

Yes, Nestle are an unusual kind of evil. Nespresso are a subsidiary but before you write them off completely you may want to check how the buying policies and prices are different within Nespresso compared to big brother. Those I’ve spoken to who encountered their buyers report that they pay excellent sustainable prices and are sourcing in a very different way to those shopping for crap to stick into Nescafe Gold Blend.

The WBC this year was truly excellent – better than any other year (granted, I’ve only attended the WBC since 2005 – but I feel confident in this). All competitors benefitted from this. The longevity and relevance of the competition benefitted from this.

Would I rather that another company sponsored? Of course! I’d like to see more exposure for companies that are relevant to what we do. However, no others seemed to have the finances and need to sponsor which leaves the competition in a difficult position. Yes, money is boring and not something that we like to talk about – but if you want a professional competition with a healthy and staffed organisational structure then this costs money. Lots and lots of money.

I would also argue that a big brand sponsor makes future sponsorships easier – lifestyle brands have lots of money, but they wouldn’t recognise any of the other sponsors. Having a sponsorlike this , along with brands like Natvia, gives you credibility and I hope has many more benefits that any perceivable negatives.

One final detail – as far as I understand it the sponsor was technically the Colombian branch of Nespresso, not Nespresso global. Not sure that really matters though.

Flame away…..

Apple has survived in 1995 because of a deal with the “evil” Microsoft. In retrospect, it was one of Steve’s best decisions.

I am not a huge fan of Nespresso neither for the taste nor for the company. But it is still the best coffee in the capsule market because they are making huge investments in research.

If the SCAE can benefit from Nespresso – why not? As an example some of their cup tasters are competing at the swiss championship what is increasing the competition level. A good thing for both.

As Jim stated Nespresso has no focus on the speciality coffee market and they still advertise with George Clooney and not with baristas.

Regarding to this I have more problems with companies such as Tchibo which are labelling bulk coffee with attributes like “Barista” or “traditional roasting”. Therefore it will be more interesting which sponsors will be joining the WBC in Vienna.

BM