Friendships often begin with a cup of coffee, sometimes even by coincidence, and this one started with a single coffee bean. That kind of relationship was, in a way, a symbol of the future relationship between Dragan Nikolić and Grand kafa, the same thing that connects you to us, right?

Yes, that’s exactly the picture. Jacket held over his shoulder, the look that makes your heart skip a beat and a large coffee bean marked the beginning of a long, unbreakable bond which left a permanent trace in the history of Grand kafa. This lovely collaboration lasted almost twenty years and during that time, we developed not only a friendship, but an entire special world of creativity which cherishes traditional, family values, respect, love, closeness, and warmth. It is a world which we wanted to present to our consumers as well.

Dragan Nikolić and Milena Dravić were a couple which represented an image of true friends, the neighbors with whom we wanted to enjoy a cup of coffee and celebrate Christmas, they were exactly the people that we all wanted to be. Very quickly, people in Serbia started to identify Grand kafa with Dravić and Nikolić, and that meant that together we succeeded in presenting them with a beautiful, honest, noble feeling which has lasted to this day.

When you have the chance to collaborate with a great actor, but also a great man such as Dragan Nikolić, you cannot remain indifferent. This is the reason why we wanted to once again share his remarkable talent, professionalism, and well-known charm with his admirers, so we started the initiative for the publication of this monograph. Over a short period of time, and in agreement with his wife, we managed to bring together a number of eminent authors, whose stories will once more remind all the admirers of Nikolić’s work of the Mister Rebel that he was and will continue to be in our hearts.

The book is an homage to his character and his work and a great symbol of appreciation of all of his hard work, generosity and years of friendship, which we wanted to preserve in this way and share it with everybody who loved him, enjoyed his work, knew him, worked with him, but also with the future generations, that will want to find out something more about the great Dragan Nikolić.

As a company that values highly moral and professional relationships with the community, as well as with its employees, it has been a great honor to have Dragan Nikolić and Milena Dravić support us. Together we reached our highest goals and set high standards – because all you need is to hear “Both smell and taste” and you instantly know that it is about Grand kafa. We owe this success to the true friendship that we shared – us, Dravić and Nikolić, and Grand. And it is extremely important to us that this friendship lasted for 20 years. We have grown together. The two of them and Grand kafa have reached the highest goal in advertising, the goal which will not be easy for another brand to reach, with this kind of message and emotion above all.

The promotion itself was an extraordinary event which gathered many of Nikolić’s friends, directors, actors, and supporters of his art in the crowded Atelje 212, and we are proud that we managed to preserve his complete works in this way.

Grand kafa is the first company to realize this kind of project valuable for culture, art, and the whole community. How did you decide to do a monograph, and not something else which would have the same value for the community?

Ideas are what leads us to something better and more beautiful, and it is said that in order to have one big idea you need to have many smaller ones. It all started when I realized that a book about Dragan Nikolić is something that would be most personal for his family, for Milena Dravić, for his complete and manifold art and, after all, for all of us. This book is valuable because it brings together everything that he had achieved in theater, on the big screen, on television, and in advertising. That is why the monograph was the right choice, which Milena Dravić agreed to right away, especially because Dragan Nikolić, the great actor who was appreciated and loved by everyone, did not have a complete artistic biography which would represent a complete collection of his art. Milena Dravić immediately called Radmila Stanković, who gathered the eminent authors and Nikolić’s friends, and in just a few months we got a wonderful, perfectly written book.

We invested a lot of work, knowledge and love into this project, as we do for all our projects. That is the secret ingredient in our recipe for building the trust and closeness with our consumers. Grand kafa does not just represent quality, but also an emotion which connects every consumer to the brand, and that exactly is the added value that our consumers recognize.

You constantly invest in the development of your brands, their promotion, and clearly in that special dialogue with your consumers as well. What is the basic idea behind your projects and your established approach?

We wish to always be a part of our consumers’ small everyday rituals and pleasures, and even more. The quality of Grand kafa has earned great trust over the years, and we try to improve the communication and adjust to new trends every day. This personal approach and authenticity are very important for us, because nowadays, with all the social media and digitalization in general, only honest and unique communication can reach our consumers in the right way. And we listen to their desires.

That is why we carried out a very complicated project called Noć Arome (Aroma Night) last year, a kind of project which no one in the region had realized before. We brought 18,000 people to Kombank Arena to a spectacular concert by Vlado Georgiev; not a single ticket was sold at the box office and there were no „free” tickets. We were the first company to rent Kombank Arena in order to delight our consumers, and provide them with an opportunity to enjoy the music of one of the most popular singers-songwriters from this region.

Grand Aroma, as a brand which supports younger female population above all, is committed to educating girls, caring for their personal development and their integrity. This was the reason for establishing a special social responsibility campaign devoted to this group – Aroma style for prom night. In running this campaign, we travel to different cities around Serbia and, through an interesting and innovative presentation, we educate girls on how to be themselves and how to be original, and not to conform to the majority of people without identities under the influence of various so-called trends that surround us.

Grand kafa Gold traditionally organizes a CSR campaign to celebrate the World Neighbors’ Day, as part of its mission of cherishing the true family and social values. Even though it is celebrated on the last Friday in May, two years ago, through a continuous campaign that lasted for more than a month, we presented the citizens of several cities in Serbia with a play called Na kafi sa kneginjom Ljubicom (A Coffee at Princess Ljubica’s), which is a symbol of tradition of our people.

Last year we started a loyalty campaign called “Namesti život po svom” (“Tailor your life to your taste”), in which the lucky winners got a certain amount of money on a gift card, which they could use to buy furniture or other household items. It started in an unusual way, with Santa Clauses on a lovely sunny day in the center of Belgrade. The communication with Santa Clauses was well received. The consumer response was incredible, not just to that project, but to all previous campaigns and activities.

Gloss:

We chose each individual CSR activity based on our brand identity, and on the corporate level, Grand kafa is dedicated to maintaining and nurturing traditional values through culture, art and education.

Grand kafa instant supports all student activities and their cultural events, while Black’n’Easy was, upon launching, associated with new design trends, as a sponsor of Belgrade Fashion Week. Following that creative thread and our dedication to temperamental young people, last year we initiated the Black’n’Easy Amsterdam Trip campaign. The campaign was carried out through digital media alone, and over 500 submissions and tenths of thousands of likes confirm its success.

And there are also those who enjoy superb espresso. They are creative in a different way; they need to be inspired; they like quality art and music. That is why we naturally decided to sponsor the Musicology festival, together with the Barcaffè brand. This common thread that combines the pleasure provided by drinking superb espresso and listening to high quality music is exactly what made this concept the resolution and the mission of the Barcaffè brand.

You often say that a leader has to be an innovator, yet yours is one of the few companies that implement this concept, not only when it comes to new products, but you also have an innovative approach to your relationship with the consumers. Do consumers recognize that? How much has that relationship changed over the past 20 years?

Nowadays, consumer dialogue is one of the key links that enables us to understand the needs and habits of consumers. The era of one-way communication had gone, regardless of how creative a message might be. As with any other relationship, be it a friendship, neighbor, business or romantic relationship, the relationship with the consumers needs to be continuously nurtured and developed. This requires a great amount of effort, knowledge and investment. We should provide the consumers with a constant – something that they can always count on, something that is a given – and that is quality. On the other hand, we should offer something new, fulfill desires and spice up that little ritual of sipping on our favorite coffee that is so important to us. Therefore, the word “innovation” is key for us, not only when talking about coffee making, but also about the concept of enjoying that coffee.

Gloss:

Enjoying a cup of coffee is an experience that we share with the ones we love; it involves understanding, unity and, if you like, passion. That is what we are dedicated to – understanding our consumers, finding out what they love and sharing that unique moment of pleasure with them.

All our innovations have only to do with enjoying coffee. For this reason, in May, 2015, we launched Black'n'Easy, an innovation on the coffee market – the first instant Turkish coffee, because the fast pace of life, as well as the production and packaging trends are more and more oriented towards practicality. The consumers recognized the quality and practicality of our new coffee, so in just over a year and a half, we sold as much as 15 million bags, and we are still improving the concept of enjoying the Black&Easy coffee. We have joined the HoReCa by introducing the Make it yourself concept, which means that now you can make yourself a cup of real Turkish coffee the way you like it in a café, by using a bag of Black'n'Easy and a pot of boiling water, in order to create an authentic experience.

In addition, we have initiated a pilot project called “Jazzva”, which is Turkish coffee in a capsule, in line with the European and worldwide trends. “Jazzva” is Turkish coffee made in a coffee machine, so that in 54-58 seconds, the coffee pot from the machine fills the cup with true, “home-made” coffee, with rich foam and sugar. New ways of enjoying coffee and the close relationship with our consumers continue to inspire us and lead us towards even more interesting innovations, which will certainly make our consumers happy.

So, the key to your success can be found in constant product quality, modern business operations and a refined approach to consumers and the market. Is this the recipe for success that should serve as a guidepost in this anniversary year and the next 20 years?

I would use only one word – trust. We take special care when it comes to fulfilling promises and that special connection with our consumers is our most valuable resource and our greatest source of inspiration for designing different marketing and advertising activities, not just this year, but also in the previous period. Looking back, the only thing that I could say is that maintaining that trust is much more difficult than gaining it. From its foundation in 1997, Grand kafa has managed to construct its recognized concept of enjoying coffee through constant monitoring of the consumers’ desires and expectations. Thanks to this originality, while respecting traditional values, we have become the leading brand in the region, which has sovereignly held the leading position on the Serbian coffee market for the past 20 years, thanks to the trust of millions of coffee lovers. And that is the only real recipe.

That’s why at Grand kafa, we are continuously improving all processes. That is the constant I was referring to. Our consumers are used to reliability and quality. Quality is constructed from the coffee bean, by monitoring the yield and selecting the best coffee, because a high-quality product can only be obtained from high-quality raw materials. And the quality is most certainly differentiated, recognized and remembered. It is the basic prerequisite for all other activities.

All raw materials used in the production of Grand kafa are purchased according to clearly defined standards. Minas comes exclusively from Brazil, robusta from India, Vietnam or Uganda. Each year prior to harvest, Grand kafa experts visit the plantations in these countries and together with the manufacturers directly check to see if the coffee has been treated properly on the spot. The samples are examined at the plantation itself, the product is then subjected to control procedures before it is loaded onto ships in the port of Kopar, through which all of the Atlantic Group import is shipped, except for the roasting plant in Skopje, which is partly supplied from Thessaloniki. During import, coffee also undergoes all necessary controls, which differentiates serious manufacturers who pay customs and excise duties for imports of raw coffee and provides an additional guarantee of origin and quality of the coffee we purchase.

Gloss:

We allocate 50 percent of our total investments towards the development and maintaining of quality, we constantly monitor the market and develop products that will meet the needs of contemporary consumers.

From the plantation to the shelf, people are the key to success and development, which is why we keep investing in education of all the staff involved in the production, planning, development, and distribution chain, as well as the education of the end consumer. Honest communication with our consumers is crucial, because we have constructed the whole concept of enjoying coffee and the trust in the quality that has been formed over the years must not be disturbed at any moment. The consumer must be aware of the brand and its quality, but they must also know how that quality was achieved.

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The consumers are in for a lot of surprises

When it comes to Grand kafa in particular, we will continue to develop brands and new products. This is only the beginning of innovations that we wish to implement in all categories. Espresso, which we are putting forward in the entire region, is also included. Espresso was introduced in this region in the 1990s, and it makes up 6-7 percent of our portfolio under the Barcaffè brand. However, over the last two-three years, there has been an expansion of espresso in Serbia. We will continue to strengthen the “on-the-go” consumption trend, which we are already working on through the Barcaffè&Go segment, a modern and popular concept that offers the freedom to move together with the superb quality of Barcaffè espresso. Obviously, there are plans to continue developing the Black’n’Easy brand, which means that the consumers are in for a lot of surprises.