GIVING back to society makes most people feel good. For Michael Harris Conlin, it makes for good business.
Thus, Conlin, president and CEO of Henry & Sons Trading and Manufacturing Co. Inc., decided to focus on the people whom he thinks want to feel good every day: millennials.
Conlin hired some of them and put up The Giving Café in March in Mandaluyong City. It was a perfect timing for Conlin as his new coffee shop is in an area populated by young professionals working in call centers.
To ensure customer traffic is consistent and sustainable, Conlin recruited and trained a staff composed of millennials under a young chef who has had several working stints overseas. He also allowed his staff to develop the coffee shop’s menu.
Naturally, the main offerings will be led by coffee from his company’s coffee line, which Conlin developed to enhance the capability of farmers in La Trinidad, Benguet, in harvesting coffee.
“Entrenched in the labors of our coffee-farming communities is a promise [and] a potential we thought of harnessing,” Conlin said.
Selling space
THE Giving Café functions both as a new brick-and-mortar selling space and an experiential café, Conlin said. The new owner of Boyd’s Coffee Co.—Henry & Sons bought it in 2013—added he also designed the coffee shop for his philanthropy vehicle, the Foundation for Sustainable Coffee Excellence (FSCE), which sources raw materials for Henry & Sons’s Bloom Coffee Line.
We have a special blend assigned to generate proceeds for specific programs that address a major concern: helping La Trinidad farmers, Conlin said. He explained Henry & Sons and the FSCE have been teaching farmers, especially the younger ones, to zero in on aspects of their trade like livelihood, equipment, water, education and health.
Conlin said they accomplish this through a friendly competition among the farmers, six of whom have won for raising the best crop. Likewise, Henry & Sons have donated more than 180 vaccines, a thousand mosquito nets, a moisture meter and atmospheric water generators. Conlin said they also gave an education assistance grant to two promising young villager.
“We want to show millennials that by supporting a social enterprise, like the Giving Cafe, they can make a difference in society, especially in the coffee sector.”
Goodwill
CONLIN and his team also developed several models to promote the brand and its advocacy targeting millennials.
The models include The Giving Caravan, a mobile coffee shop on a vintage yellow Volkswagen Type 2 vehicle, that has been making rounds giving free coffee at the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. Another is The Giving Cart, a pop-up concept that infuses events and activation spaces with good will in the form of a steaming cup of joe.
“These models also aim to reconnect the millennials with the 1960s and 1970s so they can appreciate these memorable periods in our history,” Conlin said. “If you have noticed, things associated with the past have been experiencing a revival. Take the case of the Volkswagen Kombi, which its predecessor is being used by our cafe to promote our brand.”
According to Conlin, anyone can share in the firm’s vision.
“From the machines you require to the beans you demand, everything you need to take part in our mission can be provided once you adopt our models,” he said. “If we can help and inspire Benguet coffee farmers to better their trade, without a doubt, they can help us get our coffee back into the international market by 2018.”
