Torani needed to follow the plan that had been going on for years in construction: the relocation of its headquarters and production operations in a new building in the Gulf from South San Francisco. The Covid-19 epidemic, however, was already an ambitious and costly undertaking that turned into a dramatic exercise in operational gymnastics.
Torani will begin its move in March in a huge, 327,000-square-foot San Leandro building that will have its office fees and state-of-the-art production lines. It will also serve as a Willy Wonka-Esk, a tourist-friendly “flavor factory” as well as a coffee maker, a “receptionist,” a “customer play area”, with some 150-plus flavors to try, and a spicacy that can be accessed. By the secret passage behind the bookshelf.
The company took out a loan of about million 40 million to invest in its flavor factory.
“Can we make it? Can we all catch up?” Torani CEO Melanie Dalbecko told CNN Business. “Can we repay what we have borrowed? Can we continue and build the business for our customers?”
The privately held company, which started in San Francisco’s “Little Italy” neighborhood on North Beach, has been accustomed to double-digit annual revenue growth for decades. It is now looking to reduce sales by 40% in April and will be breaking for the worst.
Coffee shop sales tank in the meantime. According to a survey of more than 5,000,000 stores by Payment Processor Square, average revenue fell 55.4% between March 1 and April 30.
When April was called and done, Torani reduced sales on his books, but only by 20%.
“And then the business came back like crazy,” Dalbecko said.
And turning to homebound homemaking, Torah syrups and sauces descended on ceremonies such as mixed drinks, kombucha batches and sour-eating starters, Dalbecco said.
In-store sales also meant that Torani had to increase the supply of 37 375-ml flip-cap bottles, which are often found in its retail. Coffee shops usually buy bottles that are twice the size.
“We had to rotate a lot in our supply chain to get all the packaging materials,” Dalbecko said.
To be in the background of this was to travel from South San Francisco to San Leandro. When Torani navigated the wild swing in demand, his operations were in two places on opposite sides of San Francisco Bay.
Torani leased a 100,000-square-foot space next to his new 330,000-square-foot factory, which housed products, bottles, labels, caps and raw materials from Madagascar, such as vanilla and hazelnuts from the Pacific Northwest. The company used some of the space as a staging area and for the preparation of orders that could change from week to week.
“It’s been a roller coaster of demand,” he said. “It’s unbelievable right now.”
Torani is now fully relocated from South San Francisco – a relocation that took six months instead of three – and is on track for annual sales of 200 200 million in 2020, a double-digit increase from 2019, Durbecko said. .