Kimbo UK has been bringing authentic Neapolitan espresso to Britain since 2009. A successful premium name in the food service sector, it now has its eyes on prime supermarkets. “We offer a different flavour profile to what is on the supermarket shelf currently,” said Kimbo UK’s Commercial Manager, Damon Wilson. Colin Chinery reports.
Naples, it is said, serves the best signature coffee in Italy; dark, intense, a super strong espresso with a robust quality and decisive taste.
And the country’s third biggest city knows its coffee. Naples leads the way across Italy in terms of coffee consumption and number of bars per square kilometre.
And numero uno seller here and all points south of Rome – and number two in Italy as a whole – is Kimbo, founded by the Rubino brothers in the early 1950s, and now set to expand its British operation.
“Naples is the essence and passion of espresso,” said Kimbo UK’s Commercial Manager, Damon Wilson. “And with some 60 years of experience making outstanding
coffees, Kimbo are masters at sourcing, blending and roasting the finest quality coffee – always in the traditional Neapolitan style.”
Finest Neapolitan
Kimbo UK is the wholly owned subsidiary of Kimbo SpA Italy, bringing authentic Neapolitan espresso to Britain since 2009.
Now after 11 years as a food service company supplying restaurants, hotels, health clubs, and offices, Kimbo UK is expanding its reach, aiming for prime supermarket shelves
in a new exclusive partnership with leading importer of Italian fine foods, Rondanini UK.
“Rondanini has great expertise, as well as very strong relationships in the grocery multiple retailing sector. We are delighted to be working with them in bringing our premium coffee range to the homes of UK consumers,” said Mr Wilson.
“Kimbo is one of Italy’s jewel brands and is synonymous with quality,” said Adriano De Vito, Managing Director of Rondanini UK. “The comprehensive range of blends
across user-friendly formats, from pods to whole-beans, provides an exciting opportunity for us to establish Kimbo as one of the market leaders in the ever-developing coffee market.”
Three-channel distribution
Currently, Kimbo UK operates through three main channels: direct supply from its West London base in Brentford, national groups and chains, and the largest – accounting for 60%
of turnover – a 30-strong distributor network.
“Our distributor partners are independent businesses who have bought into the Kimbo quality and ethos and are selling on our behalf and are the cornerstone of our business” explained Mr Wilson.
Kimbo UK’s retail strategy is now extending to get Kimbo on the supermarket shelves, and Mr Wilson does not underestimatew the challenge.
Kimbo do sell their consumer products online currently through their own web site www.mykimbo.co.uk. “All of our products for home use are available as well as some gift packs, the site evens offer a subscription service,” said Mr Wilson.
“There’s a lot of competition, with several very well-established Italian brands like Illy and Lavazza, offering some fantastic coffees at very competitive rates,” he acknowledged. “So it’s not easy for a new Italian company to come in and win business.”
Overviewing its history, Mr Wilson said Kimbo UK has been a success story, with
very positive years, and some admittedly less so, growing to an annual turnover of around £2.5 million.
“That may be considered quite small, but it’s due to the fact that up to now we have been dealing solely in the food service segment,” he said. “We are quite selective in who we want to deal with. Kimbo is a premium brand, a premium offering, and I don’t want my coffee going into just anywhere – we want people to come on a journey with us, people who believe in the brand and the quality.”
The Kimbo story
Embodying the Neapolitan tradition of espresso coffee, Kimbo is a heritage Italian coffee brand with a ‘challenge into opportunity’ story to tell.
“It started back in the early fifties by three Rubino brothers. Trading at their bakery in Naples was going through some difficulties, so they chanced their arm with a little coffee,” retold Mr Wilson. “They began roasting, and people liked what they were doing.”
Finding their niche, the Rubino coffee business expanded quickly, and taking advantage of new packaging techniques and its opportunities, Kimbo became the first coffee manufacturer to launch the vacuum-packed tin, enabling the Neapolitan tradition of real coffee to go world-wide.
Café do Brasil was set up in 1963, and soon became one of the most important coffee roasting shops in Europe.
Today Kimbo – still a family business, with second and third generations in executive positions – is a stellar name in the international coffee market, present in 80 countries
worldwide, with strong positions in France, Greece, Belgium, The USA as well as the United Kingdom.
Point of difference
“We sell on a number of points; number one, that we are truly a Neapolitan roaster,” said Mr Wilson. “The birthplace of espresso – and where it was essentially invented and developed – in Naples, and so we sell the authenticity of Neapolitan espresso.
“This gives us a slight point of difference over the likes of Lavazza, which is based in Turin, and Illy which is Trieste based.
“And then there is the quality of our product. Every coffee company will say their quality is the most important thing, and it most certainly is with us. We are very much a coffee blender, and as such we are not ashamed to be using robusta beans in our blends.
“We source some of the top quality robusta beans from around the world, and this gives our blends that depth of character and
punch which is what people would expect from a Neapolitan espresso.”
Kimbo UK’s passion for exclusive quality is also expressed in bricks and mortar, at its head office training school in Brentford, and at another in St Helens, Lancashire. Offering free training to all clients and paid courses from basic to advanced, the schools “set us aside in the UK from a lot of other coffee roasters,” said Mr Wilson.
Best training in UK
He added: “Training is extremely important for us, because it means we can support all our clients with the best level of training in the industry.”
Looking at market trends, Mr Wilson predicts that for the British coffee high street sector, 2020 will be the hardest for probably the past six years, following in the train of closures by large food service operators such as Prezzo, Carluccio’s, and Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurants.
“However, the coffee sector for the likes of Starbucks, Nero’s, and Costa is growing, and they are investing massively,” he stated. “These are superb operators; it doesn’t matter what your views are on the quality of coffee.
“Their influence on the UK coffee market has been phenomenal and has helped the likes of Kimbo and other big brands to forge a way into the UK market. 20 years ago, the UK didn’t really have a coffee market and cafe culture.”
He notes the enormous growth in the artisan coffee market, small independent roasters, a trend somewhat like the growth of small independent micro and craft breweries.
“We are now seeing this in coffee. Some have come one minute and gone the next; others such as Caravan, Monmouth, and Taylor St. Baristas, are very successful. It makes the market as a roaster very, very competitive.”
Kimbo people
Kimbo UK however, will not be moving into empty high street shops any time soon… or ever.
“We are never going to be a company that has its own coffee shop chain. That’s not what we do in Italy, and it’s certainly not what we want to do in the UK,” stated Mr Wilson.
“But we want is to work with people for whom coffee is a focus but also clients where it not their main target audience, such as a food focused chains, that want to upgrade the quality of coffee and also the level of support and offer for their customers. We do this currently, but we want to more.”
What the coffee drinker will get from the Kimbo offering, emphasised Mr Wilson, is a coffee that’s uniquely Neapolitan.
“A coffee with true Italian and Neapolitan authenticity, short, dark, and strong, and with a different flavour profile to what is on the supermarket shelf currently.”
