We have started a round of price increases on our coffees and in October we are increasing our drinks prices in our shops. We are sorry we must do this, but unfortunately we are not immune to all the inflationary pressure that everyone is facing.
The coffees which have increased are the Monmouth Espresso, Organic Espresso and online-subscription coffees. You’ll notice some increases across the single origin coffees over the next few months as well. We price the single origin coffees individually as they come onto the counter, whereas the Monmouth Espresso and Organic Espresso are priced with the blend components we have received and expect to receive over the next crops. Similarly, the coffee subscriptions are an average of the coffees we expect to use across the year.
The big drivers for increases in coffee costs come from the exchange rate, shipping, and of course the internal costs of production in origin countries. We are determined to support the farmers we work with and make sure that the various exchange rates in play (GBP to USD, USD to local currency) do not end up impacting the price the farmer receives. To help us achieve this our amazing accounts team keep a close eye on the GBP-USD rate and work their magic buying USD as we need them. As amazing as our accounts team are though they can’t outmanoeuvre the markets and anyone buying anything traded in US dollars will be feeling the impact of the historically low exchange rate. The increases in costs of production on the farms are due to fertiliser costs (fertiliser production is heavily impacted by energy costs), labour shortages, production shortages, and general inflation.
Along with the cost of the green (unroasted) coffee, the big pressures on pricing in the UK include the energy costs. Obviously, we are all feeling the impact of these prices and we look forward to knowing more about the support coming over the next few months. As an aside we are really pleased we changed to the more energy efficient Loring roasters some years ago and this has gone a long way to reduce our energy usage.
The drinks prices in the shops are based on our own costs of production, including the green coffee, energy pricing, rent and rates, staffing, milk and accompaniments, rubbish collections, espresso machine maintenance – it seems the list is endless! The largest single component is our staff costs. Coffee is a terrific industry to work in, and we want anyone coming into the industry to feel they can have a career in it, and that their hard work on our shop floors is recognised properly.
We have taken this opportunity also to re-jig our drinks menu a bit. The cortado is making its way onto the list. For those of you who already order this, it will have an official price and fits neatly into the small reusable cup. If this is a new drink to you, it has a double shot of espresso and less milk than a flat white. We are also reformulating our iced drinks so that they fit into the reusable cups properly next year.
Outside of the covid VAT decreases, increases, and then increases again, we haven’t changed our drinks prices since 2017. This increase has been overdue for a while and we have a bit to catch up on. We managed to keep everything pretty stable during the covid times but it’s getting a bit out of hand now, so here we are.
We would like to think that this would be it for the medium term however there is a real feeling of economic unpredictability now, so unfortunately we can’t make assurances. As always, we’re really grateful for your support and understanding.
See you with your reusable,
Monmouth x
