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Episode Description
This is episode 2 of a five-part solo series of The Daily Coffee Pro Podcast by Map It Forward titled Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud.
In this episode, podcast host Lee Safar addresses one of the coffee industry’s most persistent open secrets: businesses routinely fail to pay their suppliers on time.
Payment terms are not suggestions. When a supplier gives a café, roaster, importer or buyer seven, fourteen or thirty days to pay an invoice, that deadline forms part of the commercial agreement. But throughout the coffee supply chain, businesses frequently delay payment because they do not have enough cash available when the bill becomes due.
Lee explains how this behaviour moves through the industry. Cafés delay paying roasters, milk suppliers, bakers and produce distributors. Roasters delay paying importers or producers. Importers carrying unpaid invoices may then struggle to pay exporters and farmers. One business’s cash-flow problem quickly becomes somebody else’s financial risk.
The episode examines why this keeps happening. Many coffee businesses use most of their available capital on fit-outs, equipment, design, branding and opening expenses, then begin trading with little money left to cover ongoing operations. They expect revenue to arrive quickly, but when opening hype disappears and sales settle into reality, there may not be enough cash to pay every supplier.
Some businesses then begin moving between suppliers. Once one supplier restricts their account or demands cash on delivery, the business opens an account elsewhere while leaving the original debt unpaid. This is not always driven by deliberate dishonesty, but the impact on suppliers can be severe regardless of the intention.
Lee argues that the problem is rooted in fragile business models, razor-thin margins and a culture of competing through price. Businesses undercut competitors, give away equipment, chase volume and rely on future growth to compensate for work that is already unprofitable.
The result is an industry built like a city of houses of cards. Rising coffee prices, labour costs, rent, logistics, foreign exchange pressure and declining consumer purchasing power are now shaking those businesses at the same time.
When a café eventually closes, the consequences do not end with the owner. Employees may lose their jobs and wages without warning. Suppliers may never recover what they are owed. Roasters lose customers, importers lose volume and producers lose future demand.
This episode is not about shaming business owners who are struggling. It is a warning about what happens when businesses open without enough operating capital, price irresponsibly and treat suppliers as an involuntary source of finance.
Lee encourages struggling owners to confront the situation early, seek a responsible recovery plan and, where recovery is no longer possible, close with dignity rather than transferring the cost of failure to employees and suppliers.
Connect with Lee Safar here:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leesafar/
https://www.instagram.com/leesafar
If you found this episode valuable, make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast and follow along for the rest of this 5-part series.
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About Map It Forward
The Daily Coffee Pro is produced by Map It Forward, supporting coffee professionals globally across the supply chain.
Website: https://mapitforward.coffee
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