The company was established in 1994 as a purveyor of freshly roasted specialty coffee to the restaurant, hotel and café industry in Metro Manila. It also supplied sugar and cocoa products to its existing clients which have grown over the last six (6) years.

The standard brand of CAFEX, CONTINENTAL COFFEE, has gained popularity in the specialty coffee field. This brand has achieved success in the market especially for quality conscious customers like five-star hotels, upscale cafés and discriminating coffee drinkers.

In line with its core coffee business, CAFEX goes to the roots of the coffee industry by having its own coffee mill operation. CAFEX maintains a coffee mill in the town of Amadeo in Cavite. The mill has hulling and cleaning facilities, which has a capacity of 5,000 kilograms of green coffee a day. Since Cavite is one of the main coffee growing provinces and the most quality conscious of producers, CAFEX sources its prime robusta requirements from its own mill making it competitive against its competitors and also sources its green coffee beans which it supplies instant coffee manufacturers Nestlé Philippines, General Milling Corp. and Universal Robina Corp. It likewise makes this mill a base for its export operations sourcing its Liberica and Excelsa varieties, both exported to Singapore and the Middle East.

1997 was an important year for CAFEX as it purchased its coffee roaster, a German built PROBAT roaster to answer the needs of its increasing and discriminating market. CAFEX also in the same year made a major move into selling coffee brewing equipment which integrated its roasting operations to fully service its growing clientele. It also got a non-exclusive right to sell the fully automatic SAECO Espresso Machines.

In 1998, CAFEX went on an aggressive sales program, which included providing machines to big accounts like hotels and food chains which pushed sales to new heights. We also started to build our brand equity for both Continental Coffee by promoting our brand with advertisements and in-store promotions. We also launched our imported coffee line, CAFÉ MONTEALTO which was received well by the market looking for more discriminating coffees from different parts of the world like Colombia, Kenya and Costa Rica. We also introduced our Decaffeinated Coffee previously only available from imported sources.

Due to our growth in sales in both coffee and coffee machines, we had to set up our service center in 1999 to service the growing number of machines sold. We were now establishing a name for ourselves not only in specialty roasted coffee but in coffee machine sales as well. During this year, our sales further improved by getting better coffee accounts including the big fast-food chains like Burger King. We were concentrating on getting the bigger accounts which we felt was the thrust of our coffee sales efforts. It was in this year that we transferred our administrative and sales office to Legaspi Village in Makati from Taguig to better service our clients and still maintained our warehouse and processing facilities in FTI Complex in Taguig.

In the current year, we have opened our showroom, Emporio Espresso, which showcases all the coffee machines we market and likewise serves as our coffee tasting facility for all our clients who wish to test our coffee offerings. We also sell coffee beans, Espresso accessories and other coffee paraphernalia. We also offer consulting services for clients, which need guidance with regard to improving their coffee bar operations. Seminars, which give an in-depth education regarding the world of coffee, are also available.

In terms of profitability, this year would probably be better than last year as the price for our main raw material, coffee beans, has significantly gone down and therefore margins are increasing. The price for raw coffee will remain low due to an oversupply situation in the world market. This means better margins for our roasting operations.

We have plans of opening retail outlets to further promote the CONTINENTAL Coffee brand and continue to build brand equity. More specifically we are in the process of looking into drive thru coffee establishments and to franchise the same. Also in the drawing board is a business model for Espresso vending coffee machines to be positioned in high foot traffic locations such as office buildings, banks, malls, hospitals and schools.

In the field of exports, we will continue to serve our markets for Liberica and Excelsa green coffee beans and we hope to increase our volume to these markets as we are in a better position to do so this year as the Philippines is more competitive vis-à-vis its neighbors. We are also trying to work back our export markets for roasted coffee namely Korea which we lost in 1998 due to the Asian crisis. We are also currently working on new markets namely Taiwan, Australia and the U.S.A., which we hope to get inroads into these markets this year.

CAFEX’s business therefore is centered in Coffee, which is fast gaining popularity not only in the Western world but also in the Philippine market. Its operations are almost fully integrated since it is involved in all segments except agriculture. From cherries to beans, to roasted coffee and then to the cup. CAFEX believes in the future of the coffee business here and it is preparing for a surge in coffee consumption in the next five years.