Farmers Coffee — SME Case Study (UAE)

Farmers Coffee is a unique and creative organic specialty coffee concept with a healthy twist that offers exceptional coffees and healthy, delicious, specialty snacks. It was established in 2018 by its co-founders Faisal Al Marri, a health enthusiast and a coffee professional, and Faisal Ahli, a creative passionate entrepreneur, to offer the community better lifestyle options through a health- conscious sustainable coffeehouse destination. Farmers was the first healthy and organic specialty coffee in the region. The founders worked really hard to invent and create a healthy specialty coffee concept not only by working on new recipes and ingredients, but also by signing agreements and establishing a good network of organic farms and suppliers. In addition to that, the establishment of the brand needed a strong educational Farmers Coffee campaign about the concept, which was exceptionally successful. It also won the Brand Dubai Specialty Coffee Challenge. Along with five other winners, it represented Dubai as one of the best specialty coffees in the city at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival. At that time, it was only nine months old.

Figure 28: Farmers Coffee Promo Photo Mission A joyful experience of delicious coffee and healthy energy, to provide customers with the best coffee and healthy snacks and to boost their immune system. It works so hard to recreate snacks or sweets in a healthier delicious version and to let everyone know that they don’t have to eat unhealthy snacks or sweets.

Vision Its vision is to be internationally known as one of the best specialty coffees that serves clients with the best coffee quality and delicious healthy snacks at a very affordable price.

Values Healthy The company is a health enthusiast that aims to have a healthy impact on our community.

Fair It is fair in its prices providing affordable products with premium organic ingredients.

Unique It dares to be different, innovate and deliver unique and exceptional products.

Skilled It is comprised of skilled professionals and life-learners who always try to improve and deliver their best.

Inclusive It is full of joyful, generous, and optimistic human beings who spread warmth and happiness.

Organizational Structure

Accounting Department 1 Accounting Department 2 CEO HR CO FOUNDER Marketing Department Ex Barista Photographer Video Maker Barista Head Barista Product Development General Manager Figure 29: Organizational Structure of Farmers Coffee The CEO of the company is Faisal Al Marri and the co- founder is Faisal Al Ahli. They have the human resource department, which is administered by Ahli and it has two accounting teams from two different companies. It has a marketing director, who is Fatimah. Next, it has the barista, which means he is an employee as well as a photographer as well as a video maker and a barista.

The Farmers owners also mentioned that while hiring employees, they follow a specific technique. They ask them about their hobbies or what they like and they search for their skills and if they find anything that the employee likes that will benefit the company, they will help them in improving this skill in this person. For example, the ex barista likes taking pictures so they brought him all the cameras and the things he will need and sent him for extra photography classes to learn how to take proper pictures, which will benefit the organization by saving a minimum 40 or 50k for pictures and videos.

Product and development is administered by Marri while the head barista is the general manager. For example, if they have a meeting they can send him or if there was a meeting with the supplier, he goes or if there is another choice of ingredients, he could go and check on it. Every company should have a general manager. He was the head of the barista, but now he got promoted to general manager.

About the Founders Faisal Al Ahli: He comes from a family that’s filled with business owners. He graduated from Dubai National School in 2007 and went to study abroad in the U.S.

He studied at the University of San Diego till 2012, but had to go back to the UAE during the last semester for personal reasons. He completed his studies in the UAE and graduated from it in 2016. In 2017, he started working in Dewa till December 2020 and started focusing on his own business. Ahli deals with administration, human resources, investments, accounting, suppliers, shipments, deliveries, new projects, and logistics. Ahli met his business partner Marri in Dewa. They both were working there and they both had passion for coffee and the same goals. They both learned a lot from each other and shared information they knew about coffee to each other. They used to make coffee every morning for their whole department, that’s when their colleagues started supporting them and asking them to open a coffee shop and that’s how they got the idea of becoming partners and starting a business. They did a lot of research on the coffee and beans traveled to different countries in order to find the perfect beans. They also wanted to spread the word that coffee doesn’t always have to be unhealthy.

They recreated it in a healthy way and exchanged the sugar with organic honey or pure caramel and after all that research, they both set their terms and conditions and agreed that Ahli will deal with everything outside the bar.

Faisal Al Marri: He graduated from Etihad School and Sharjah University and started working in Dewa in 2014.

Marri suffered from an immune disorder which is called Graves’ disease and he has been through a lot of things during his treatments and in the end, they figured out that the only thing that is really working for him is healthy and organic food. After six years, he fully entered the remission state and has been through a lot of healthy diets, like keto, vegan, etc. and he noticed that there are a lot of things that could benefit the communities health, but the community thinks it’s bad for their health or it could have a negative side effect. For example, when they started, they had a hard time convincing people that coffee could be healthy for them based on the research that they have done. But nowadays, everyone knows that coffee could be healthy and it doesn’t always have to be an unhealthy example. If Ahli saw anything that he likes in the market, for example a sweet or snack, he sends it to his partner in order to recreate it in his own unique healthy way and make sure that it will not cost them more than the price that they are willing to sell it in, recreating it with less organic ingredients.

• Ginger shot
• Campaign to support the front line
• Farmers came up with the first aid shot
• V60 box with all the expaniation from a to z

Figure 30: Farmers product description In the first month of the pandemic, all business owners had a hard time, but Farmers knew it couldn’t just sit down and do nothing about it, so it started watching videos from the place in which the virus spread and how business owners dealt with this pandemic. Then Farmers decided to show customers that they had nothing to worry about from how well the staff was sanitized and they filmed each and every process that the employees do to show clients that they are sanitized. It made clients feel like they were with them in the same shop, it showed what they were living with. At the same time, Farmers was the first to start a campaign about supporting the front line of all the hospital staff, police officers, and civil workers. They could just pass by the shop and grab a free drink. The second thing Farmers did was that it came up with a first ed shot, which is an immune booster drink as well as a ginger shot in order to attract customers by boosting their immune system. The fourth thing Farmers did was that it came up with a V60 box, a lot of customers would go to Farmers in order to drink V60, but when the pandemic happened, they couldn’t go any more and they had to keep their distance, so the V60 box came with all the needed ingredients and an explanation on how to make a V60 from A-Z.

Coffee beans

The company offers a variety of special coffees sourced carefully from the best farms in the world and roasted by a highly qualified roasting master. It believes that coffee is science combined with innovation and creativity.

Therefore, it provides various options of coffees based on people’s tasting preferences, including fruit, chocolate, balanced, and strong.

• El clasico is a strong coffee blend from Brazil and

India that provides unique notes of sweet spices and cocoa.

• FARMERS BLEND, which is a special coffee blend

from Brazil and Ethiopia, provides unique notes of berries and milk chocolate.

• Micro-lot Colombia, which is a very special coffee

that provides a unique note of papaya, melon and passion fruit.

Farmers uses 100% local organic milk only.

Farmers established a partnership with an Emirati local farm that produces grass-fed organic milk to use. It believes that organic milk is healthier, more delicious, and it will benefit the people and community.

Espresso Based Espresso Macchiato Americano Piccolo Cortado Flat White Cappuccino latte Manual brew Chemex Kalita Aeropress Cold brew 90+ cold brews Cold Drip Without coffee Tart Berry Smoothie Matcha Latte Pina Colada Iced Hibiscus Tea Triple Berries Smoothie Organic signatures Honey Caramel F9 White Latte Hazelnut Cocoa Figure 31: A look at the menu and food items of Farmers Coffee It also provides healthy, delicious, guilt-free snacks that will change your perspective on healthy food.

Healthy Bowl Acai Tart Berry 3 Berries Bowl Figure 32: Farmer Coffee Healthy Bowls All of the snacks are 100% organic and refined sugars free. There are various options of gluten free snacks, as well as dairy free and vegan options. The company established an experimental kitchen and lab to explore and re-create delicious food in healthier ways.

Sweets Almond Date Cookies Healthy Rahash Balls Dark Peanut butter Truffles Muffins & Brownies Banana Bread Muffins Cookies & Truffles Choco-chip Cookies Nutella Cookies Chocolate Brownies Figure 33: Farmer Coffee Signature Snack Box It also provides special boxes based on what customers would like to have including a Cold Brews box and a Signatures Snacks box.

Services Description

Farmers offers

• Catering services
• Consultation
• Coffee supply
• Coffee bar running
• Sponsorships and collaborations

who are we?

where are we now?

where do we want to go?

how will we know when we have reached our goals?

how do we plan to get there?

Figure 34: The Farmers Coffee Business Strategy ¡ Who Are We?

When starting with the business, the first thing the company did was that it brainstormed what was its mission, vision, and values, and how it could benefit the community and come up with something totally different from the rest of the coffee shops. How could it be unique in its own way? That’s when it decided to be totally different from the rest by being healthy and recreating whatever the customer wants in a healthy and organic way.

¡ Where Are They Now?

This is based on Farmers’ performance data, the financial data and the SWOT analysis, in order to know how well the company is operating and how it is doing in the market.

¡ Where Does It Want to Go?

This is its strategic goals and perspective and how it wants to keep on going. How far does it want to go?

¡ How Will It Know When Its Goals Are Met?

This is based on Farmers performance, objectives, and targets that it has set.

¡ How Does It Plan To Get There?

Each and every business has a risk, but what are the actions it is willing to take in order to reach its goals?

top-down perspective

market requirements perspective

bottom-up perspective

operations resources perspective

Figure 35: The Operational Strategy of Farmers Coffee ¡ Top Down Perspective: What the owners of Farmers want from the operations is to produce and distribute the best coffee in the market and the best coffee in the UAE. They want to achieve the highest quality, which will allow them to grow as a company from an SME and hopefully in the future, it would become a big business organization and they might be seen as the kings of coffee.

¡ Market Requirements Perspective: For example, during the pandemic, the market required Farmers to take or to follow certain steps in order to get the business back in process. The pandemic made it come up with what it had to do and what measures it has to take.

¡ Bottom Up Perspective: It made clients live with their day-by-day process and showed clients what it does from A-Z and what process it follows so that clients won’t be scared when ordering.

¡ Operations Resource Perspective: The operational staff and the operational products or machines that are used to produce a high quality coffee which allows the business to produce a variety of products for customers, which allows coffee lovers to enjoy different kinds of coffee and it will help to reach a high number of customers because there are a lot of customers who like variety, so this company and those operational staff and those operational machines allow the company to achieve that goal.

Social Media Instagram & Facebook Posts & Stories Interacting with Customers Campaigns Paid ads Figure 36: Marketing Strategies of Farmers Coffee The company mentioned that it follows Ali Al Musk’s marketing strategy, in which he says 80% of what you get to invest in marketing doesn’t mean that if you get 100k, you invest 80k in marketing. That just explains how important marketing is. It also has a marketing team that uses social media accounts to interact with loyal customers and lets them know if it has any new products or services to offer, or even if it has a new branch. It also uses campaigns and paid ads to let people know about what it is offering and uses posts and stories in order to interact with customers and get their reviews in order to provide them with a better product or service.

When Farmers opened its Khawaneej shop, it had an issue with one whole year of the parking lot. The roads were not yet done and that was a major challenge as clients couldn’t find a place to work in.

Organic ingredients cost more than normal food, as well as the milk. For example, if the company uses the milk that’s in the market, it will only cost it 7-8 dirhams but instead, it uses organic milk that costs 19 dirhams for a liter, for example, the vanilla syrup it always orders from a specific organic shop. It faced a lot of challenges with paperwork in the first year and the construction companies gave it a hard time.

Overcoming Such Challenges Farmers said once it finds the problem, it takes a deep breath and it’s important that the business owner notices the problem before it’s too late to take action.

Successful Best Practices

Healthy environment, good vibes, nature, and charity.

You should choose people you collaborate with carefully and you should set all your terms and regulations.

Just like any other business, when Farmers started, it faced many challenges but it never let that stop it. The company kept on improving and developing its strategies until it grew and it still continues to develop and improve by providing customers with better products and services.

Pop-ups that it used to do are minor, the branch in d3 is minor because it doesn’t have a full force, and the new shop in Kalba is a major growth.

When you start a business, you should know what the market needs from you and you should know where the gap is. For example, when Farmers chose organic, there was a huge gap in the market as there weren’t many coffee shops that were serving organic sweets and snacks. But now, many coffee shops and restaurants are serving healthy and organic food, so you look for the gap in the market and then you decide what you will serve clients. For example, the organic coffee we should search in the market? Will we be able to find a supplier that will provide us with this coffee? Can I provide my clients with the signature drinks? You have to have a story for your shop. There has to be a story of what made you choose this city, and if you have someone who is unique in your team, try to promote them as much as you can. People today love living the experience with you, so show them step-by-step what you’re doing. Show them that you’re interested in what your shop is doing and that you’re there in your shop. Show them how everything is done, for example, the Farmers owners go to their shop every day. They show their clients how invested they are and what they’re doing. Show them how much you love what they’re doing. That’s how people get attracted to the shop.

¡ The company tries to provide clients with a healthier version of what they usually order in other coffee shops.

¡ Choose your partners or people you’re planning on collaborating with wisely.

¡ Choose the right and only authorized construction companies because if you don’t, that will cost a lot.

¡ When you’re on duty every single day, you learn something new.

¡ You should love what you’re doing and you should be passionate about it or else you wouldn’t come up with new ideas.

In conclusion, what I have learned through this case study is that Farmers Coffee is one of the most motivational local businesses here in the UAE. It is a small business establishment but its performance, motivation, and goals will give it potential to become a big organization in the future. It has transformed itself from university graduates to huge businessmen, Faisal Al Ahli and Faisal Al Marri. They have worked hard to achieve their business and started with a very small branch, but it grew. They made sure that they serve clients and give their clients variety of choices for them to make. The company has many different coffee choices and sweets to suit all of their clients. I personally never thought I would be so impressed in a small coffee establishment and by the owner’s mindset, but through this research, I have discovered that they have a very successful business strategy and organized business plan. They went through business struggles just like every other business but they were able to achieve success through it and they were able to grow as a company and keep on growing from a small business into a medium establishment.