Towards a sustainable coffee market: paradoxes faced by a multinational company

This paper examines the case of sustainable coffee as faced by Sara Lee's International Coffee and Tea Division (SL), asking which strategic direction the company should take considering its regulatory, competitive, and societal contexts. More than a decade after sustainable coffee became a strategic issue for SL, emerging public purchasing guidelines seem to exclude the ‘mainstream-market’ policy of the company and instead favour the Fairtrade standard that embodies a niche approach. The case presents the strategic, organisational, and marketing dimensions, in their international supply-chain and industry dynamics. It raises the question what it means for a large, mainstream, multinational company to move to sustainability when the issues at hand are very complex, when consumer awareness is limited, and when the market for sustainable coffee is not yet mature. Several strategic options are presented, each with their pros and cons, as input for further discussion and research on the paradoxes related to sustainability and international business.