La Colombe Wants to Be the Next Major Coffee Chain

LaColombe_Fishtown-600x397Todd Carmichael, CEO of La Colombe, has big plans for his business and with the help of a brand-new investor, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya, he plans to expand his business quickly. Carmichael wants to innovate new ways of drinking coffee, like his recent success of his draft lattes (made form cold-brewed coffee and frothed milk). La Colombe is planning to expand by having food offerings, including Chobani, canned lattes in grocery stores, and opening new shops in every major U.S city.

Carmichael wants to improve and evolve America’s retail shelves “the packaging is off, the logistics are off, and the bags of coffee are old.” With his distributions of coffee expanding through cafes, though wholesale, and directly to customer through e-commerce and grocery stores, Carmichael is confident that him, his investors, and his company can better a café experience, and quality in America.

One of his newest products he is expecting to immerse into grocery markets are canned lattes. While Frappuccinos were already a past favorite, with the shift in health focused eating habits and the high amount of sugar levels in a Frappuccino, Carmichael wants a new innovative bottled drink that will be natural, and without tons of sugar. Along with recreating bottled coffee, La Colombe is challenging the idea of draft lattes on tap.

La Colombe is also expanding their food offerings into two categories-savory pastries and a full lunch. While there is no plan to make a café into a lunch place, Carmichael has created a new development that can receive the response from foodies and make people happy all while keeping their café image.

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Retail Spotlight: La Newyorkina

la-newyorkina_650_20130521Their Success…While temperature and humidity levels are at its extremes in New York City, New Yorkers and tourists alike are taking their spare time along the highline. The highline boasts as an iconic glimpse into the past and present of New York City where people can indulge in both nature and the city’s skylines on a historic walkway. A common thread for people walking the highline is that people are looking for ways to escape the summer heat. It is almost inevitable for people to not seek a fresh, cold relief. La Newyorkina utilizes this demand and conveniently stands on 30th St. and 17th St. attracting many consumers with their ice pop cart. La Newyorkina serves paletas, a traditional Mexican ice pop, in an array of flavors that change seasonally. They have both regular sized paletas, at $4, and mini sized paletas, at $1. The mini sized paletas is a popular choice for children as the “regular sized” paletas are deemed to run a lot bigger than an average ice pop.

Their clean crisp white cart exacerbates the fresh and clean vibes of the product, which identifies with consumer demands after a long, hot sweaty walk on the highline. Moreover, La Newyorkina doesn’t hesitate to brand their cart and their menu board with their logo and their Mexican themed ice pop. While other vendors do exist, these vendors have aligned themselves next to each other, making consumer options broader, which potentially draw customers away. However, La Newyorkina distinguishes themselves and locates themselves in a similar area, where traffic is heavy, but still distancing themselves to be noticed. La Newyorkina is a stand-alone cart with no seats like other vendors offer so most consumers buy a paleta and continue their walk on the highline. This creates more opportunity for more customers. As people walk down the highline those who already have a paleta in hand are already cooling down and indulging in their ice pop, which draws attention to those who are dehydrated and hot. These consumers are potentially persuaded to attain their own ice pop to help them survive the walk, and because La Newyorkina stands at both ends of the highline, the paletas will be easily accessible to new consumers.

Take Aways…La Newyorkina doesn’t fail to attract consumers and create traffic. La Newyorkina is on target with consumer demands during the summer months, and is on trend with consumer eating behavior. Many consumers are seeking for fresh and healthy foods, and La Newyorkina boasts their paletas to be fresh and local. Their ice pops are sourced from NY farmers and nearby organic dairy, fruits and herb vendors. Ingredients that cannot be acquired locally like tamarind, and other Mexican ingredients are imported in by small producers in Mexico. Moreover, Fany Gerson, Founder of La Newyorkina, hand-makes her products from scratch in small batches.

La Newyorkina offers a healthy satisfaction in an array of unique flavors- Hibiscus, Cucumber Lime, Fresh Coconut, Avocado, Tamarind, Horchata, Cajeta, and Mango-Chile. These unique flavors are, ultimately, a leading factor to their success as it attracts consumers through multiple platforms- social media, by-standers.