Leonard Caffe's story begins almost 25 years ago, in Timișoara, where Mihail Florescu, together with two other partners, founded the company SC Phoenix Impex SRL. At the same time, “Torrefatione Italiana”, the first bakery in the city and one of the few in the country at the time, was born, and “CAFFÉ MIC” was registered, a pioneering brand for what would become the local coffee market in the years to come.
In 1991, Mihail Florescu brought to the flower town on the Bega, after almost ten years of living in Italy, not only Petroncini technology, of which he became a member by marriage but also "Espresso Italiano" or the tradition of Arabica coffees ideal for kettles. It was the beginning of a journey that would bring him many satisfactions.
"It was an incredible blend, which enjoyed notoriety in Timisoara and changed the consumption tradition of Romanians. These were the first years after the Revolution when Romanians began to discover the taste of real coffee after the years of communism, an era in which there was crazy smuggling. It was bestial, first of all, because no one understood what I wanted to do and secondly because it was an incredible devaluation. Robusta coffee cost very little, I was selling in a year about as much as I am selling now in a month and a half. At the end of the year, when I changed the money in the bank to pay the supplier, I had less than half of what I had brought, the first three years were at a loss, then the evasionists won"
confesses Mihail Florescu, the company's founder.
The next stage in the life of the company is the year 1996 when the activity is transferred to the Capital, and the shares of SC Phoenix Impex SRL pass into the portfolio of Global Trade, whose sole shareholder is Mihail Florescu. An auspicious change from a financial point of view and which practically opens the way for further development. At that time, coffee was sold in bulk, the daily demands being 150-200 kg, ie about as much as was required in Timisoara in a whole month. In the first month, for example, a sales volume of six tons of coffee was reached in Bucharest. It is also the moment of a premiere for the local market, Mihail Florescu uses for the first time in Romania a new technology - roasting coffee on hot airflow.
Two years later, the Leonard Caffe brand is registered, which has established itself through tradition, passion, and quality. The brand was already visible on the market, enjoying recognition among consumers, which makes the next step natural: the opening of the first tasting cafe in Romania in the bohemian atmosphere on Avrig Street. It was a novelty not only for Romania, but also a rarity for Europe, especially since no less than 25 types of coffee could be tasted here, and customers could have coffee for home as well.
In 2008, the production activity moved to Cornetu, located about 20 km away from the Capital. The new building, built on the edge of the forest, soon became a real coffee temple. It is the place where the mixes with unique flavors are prepared on the Romanian market, whose fame has crossed the ocean, but also a fairytale world where you can discover the atmosphere of long-gone times.
Leonard Caffe is the first Romanian coffee producer who managed to arouse the interest of Americans with the Vampire Coffee brand, an exotic, strange, and enigmatic blends like Vlad Dracula, which entices us with cinnamon flavors and a fine hot pepper powder.
WORKSHOP OF COFFEE, A NETWORK IN FULL EXPANSION
An important objective for Leonard Caffe for the next period in the development of the network of Coffee Workshops - ten units currently open in the province and the Capital - the goal being to standardize the quality coffee market in terms of prices, according to Mihail Florescu.
Leonard Caffe produces about 10 tons of coffee per month - imports amount to 150 tons - with a portfolio of 35 types of coffee packaged as different blends, and as a brand of origin - 25 types of coffee. The coffee is brought from the Italian port of Trieste, where the supply of 22-25 types of coffee is made. Based on them, the mixes are made, a mixture of several types of coffee, robust or arabica or only arabica. Leonard Caffe has in his portfolio the moves like Miscela Gold, Ora and Avendis.
The HoReCa chain (Miscela Oro, Degusta Suprema, Miscela Italiana, Miscela Decofeinizată) and the vending network are on the customer list. Among the most well-known brands in the portfolio are Vampire Coffee, Avedis, and Grandma's Coffee.
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