Dear Friends & Colleagues,

One year ago, we probably all had another vision for this time of the year 2021. Unfortunately, we are still concerned – and in some places even more than before – with the Covid-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we think that it is the right time to set a different kind of focus for this NKG Connected: we want to set a goal for NKG’s future.

In the past years, NKG has added immensely to its coffee competence in countless known and new areas. We have made substantial investments in know-how and production capacities. Without doubt, we continue to be regarded by the roasting industry of the world – large and small – as the most competent, solid, transparent and singly-focused green coffee supplier and discussion partner for all topics around the coffee supply chain. 

With all of this and acceptable commercial results solidifying our equity, we are well prepared and set up for what must be the next logical step in our development: Business Volume Growth. 

Today, we are setting an ambitious goal that is and will be challenging to reach: when worldwide consumption reaches 200 million bags a year – which we estimate could be as early as 2030 – we as NKG want to have 10% of that volume go through our hands – that means 20 million bags of sales. We are calling this the “20/200 Goal”.

Amongst the large coffee traders, NKG is the smallest company, and that is an important reason why a prominent market position as a USP is important to us. We also need our business to grow in line with the growth in the last years in our structures – to be able to maintain them.

We are convinced that the fact that we are a single commodity, single focus company at the height of our proficiency will allow us generate that necessary growth in the next years. We are constantly discussing within NG and with all of NKG how, where and when we want to realistically grow in sales volumes.

We are willing to further invest into this growth where it is sustainable, but we need to gain business by competitivity, creativity and discipline, not by buying it. Substantial growth will have to come from the main (and mainstream) import markets and companies and from the large producing nations, but we want to continue to offer (and push) diversity in coffee quality, preparations and sources – we want to generate growth in all sectors across NKG while continuing to be the best possible spokespeople for the producer.

This is not about sales for the next period, we are addressing our sales and business lines in 10, in 20 years. We do not want to grow regardless of cost. We can take some time, find opportunities and avoid exponentially growing risks in unattractive or overly difficult market situations.

20/200 must go hand in hand with strong equity, continued strong human resources, and a single-minded resolve that everything we do must somehow serve this goal – as different as each of our knowledge and specialization may be. We will reward the necessary efforts and accomplishments and we will succeed in this endeavor if we set our minds and hearts to it – even and especially where it means taking a new approach and exploring different than the known avenues. To this end and with the target of having a better tool to steer our growth and development mid-term, we have carefully begun implementing our new remuneration system, the “NKG Performance Plan”. This will take time in line with its importance, but the target is a gradual and thoughtful implementation across the entire NKG and on multiple levels in each company.

This year with a frost, a worldwide logistics crisis of epic proportions and, towards the end of the year, coffee futures prices going from high to high to higher in a manner that can only be partially explained rationally is putting the financing model for our core business to a real stress test. For important growth as we envisage it, we will need to make sure that the risks that grow with it can and will be managed under any market circumstances. We will need to visit new and alternate financing models; we will also need to set priorities for those business lines that are the most economically sustainable and profitable and be able to reduce exposures more quickly if needed or wanted.

So, though this time is not what we hoped for, I wish all of you a calm and tranquil holiday season. May you and your loved ones stay safe and healthy and may we all have the resilience to deal with the situation once again and come back for an energetic, fresh start into the new year 2022.