COVER STORY Buencafé
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BUENCAFÉ GENERAL DIRECTOR CRISTINA MADRIÑÁN ON THE PREMIUMISATION OF SOLUBLE COFFEE, ACHIEVING RECORD SALES RESULTS IN A COVID YEAR, AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING SUSTAINABLE VALUE.
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ome people spend their whole lives searching for a career that gives them fulfillment and purpose, but not Cristina Madriñán. She’s spent the past 25 years nurturing her career development at one of Colombia’s most respected coffee brands, Buencafé. Each Christmas at the end of harvest, Madriñán would visit her grandmother’s farm, a 10-minute drive from the Buencafé factory, and compete with her brothers and cousins to pick the highest volume of cherries. “My grandmother always gave us a reward regardless of the weight of coffee we picked. It was a fun novelty to play amongst the coffee trees,” Madriñán says. “But for many Colombians, like my grandparents, coffee farming is a tradition and an income to support your family.” After completing a degree in industrial engineering, Madriñán started work at Buencafé as an intern in 1996. She broadened her technical and managerial knowledge with a Master of Business Administration, but since walking through the doors of Buencafé 25 years ago, Madriñán has never left. “Historically, Buencafé has been synonymous with spirit, international vision, and growth, and before joining Buencafé I knew it was a great place to learn and grow,” Madriñán tells Global Coffee Report. “Working with Colombian coffee, Buencafé, and the Colombian Coffee Growers Federation (FNC) [which established Buencafé in 1973], means working for our country. It is a job one holds with pride because of the great contribution you can make to the agricultural sector and to many
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coffee-growing families. It is contributing to the development of Colombia.” Madriñán’s career at Buencafé has been marked by perseverance and discipline. She has experienced nearly all facets of the company, working in internal control, customer service, and the commercial team managing sales in North America and Asia, before taking over as commercial director in 2006. After a rigorous hiring process, Madriñán’s career trajectory peaked in January 2020 when she was appointed General Director, replacing long-serving Director Constanza Mejía. “It was acknowledgment that I had the ability and competence to embrace this role – a demanding role, but one that is extremely rewarding when we accomplish our goals and turn challenges into opportunities,” Madriñán says. That ideology was put to the test when Madriñán’s administration coincided with the start of the global pandemic. “I navigated through the year with two resources: optimism, which is Buencafé’s superior purpose, and commitment of the working team, which redoubled its efforts to attend to factory operations,” she says.
