Is it just me or does it seem like the topic of coffee is making the news a lot lately? Much of it is dominated by the market share battle between Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts - oh and who can drive down the street or pick up a paper without reading about McDonald's new coffee program. Here's a news flash for you - they are all big, they do huge numbers, and are well run businesses.

But the story of the year is the specialty coffee and tea industry. Unlike aerospace (my old world - everyone has an "old world" don't they?) or auto makers where you have two or three big players and nobody else, specialty coffee has tens of thousands of entrepreneurs just like you who manage to make ends meet working for yourself and serving a fabulous cup of Joe with a smile! SCAA would say there are roughly 30,000 independents in the US market alone.

You wonder how can this be possible that 30,000 independents can exist with the really big players? Well...from my perspective...it comes down to a simple numbers game ..... Let's just say for numbers sake that there are 40,000 locations for those big guys. Then throw in about 25,000 other big players - convenience stores and gas stations that serve coffee inside. That’s 65,000 locations and let’s just guess that they average 500 cups a day at each of those and we are a little over 37 million cups a day. Now that seems like a really big number for those really big guys.

In order to launch my StixToGo business, I needed to conduct research on single use / disposable lids to understand the market potential for my coffee plugs, stir stix and straws. One consultant told me that I should just conduct research on coffee spills - duh that's everyone, so we looked at everyone. The numbers were staggering. In 2004 there were 58 million lids used every day in the US and consumption has been growing at over 10% per year. As I have said many times before, caffeine is the drug of choice in the 13 - 29 year old demographic. Don't believe me? Drive around the perimeter of a college campus and take note of the businesses or take a walk through the campus and see what the students are juggling with their books and backpacks.

So it looks like we are at 70 some million cups a day and the big players have say, half the market. Before you jump to the conclusion that the left over 35 million cups spread across me and 29,999 others is 1166 cups a day, you have to take out the office coffee players and a few others - heck, cut it in half and you still have well over 500 cups a day.

But by now I hope you get the point, there is room for 30,000 independents amongst the giants. If you are not doing 500 cups a day, you too have room for growth :) There is plenty of room for you in the market and this should have been the story of the year!

Make it a great year!

Tom