Expanding internationally has been in our corporate DNA since our company’s early years.

Rui Miguel Nabeiro, CEO at Delta Cafés

Probably because we come from a small village in the border between Portugal and Spain and the cross-border commerce is a reality as old as the borders themselves. But while the strategy behind our initial international expansion was geographically (proximity) driven to Spain and other European markets, either directly or via distributors, more recently we’ve adopted a different strategy and decided to segment the potential new markets, or “white spaces”, as we like to call them.

To help us decide which “white spaces” we should address first in our current international expansion, we have been using a segmentation based on several critical aspects to our business. Dimensions as per capita coffee consumption, projected coffee consumption growth, easiness of doing business, legal and fiscal requirements and market size, just to name a few, are taken into consideration, allowing to rank the potential new markets.

But while this segmentation helped prioritizing where to go first, the challenges that each market presents to a company like ours are many times different from what we have faced previously and to a relevant extent. And we classify them into two major blocks… internal and external.

On the internal side, things such as recruiting and maintaining the right talent, setup the right level of controls and metrics, defining the correct go-to-market and identifying the needs of the business in terms of growth and cash flow projections are critical, while on the external front dealing with local legal and fiscal requirements, managing cultural differences and finding the right partners rank high in terms of challenges that each new operation faces.

However, no matter how well prepared we believe we are when entering a specific market, reality always manages to challenge us with surprises and unforeseen events. And those are usually the moments in which is key to stick to your initial resolution to enter that geography, even if doubts arise within the team. But, at the same time, it is critical to accept that a certain degree of flexibility, and humility, is required when facing the fact that your plans might need to be adjusted, sometimes even at an early stage, and that some of the things you assumed as granted are not happening.

In the end, it’s not about being stubborn and ignoring the reality check… It’s about being resilient and capable of adapting to new challenges, sometimes at a fast pace, even when they do not make, apparently, that much sense or are conflicting with your experience and learning. After all, one size does not fit all and many times in order to be competitive abroad it’s critical to accept that a different set of conditions will deliver a different result and you and your company need to adjust accordingly. Besides that, expanding to new markets and having consumers thousands of km away buying and enjoying your products is priceless.