ADMS 2500 Introduction to Financial Accounting

Carol Yang just graduated from York University with her BCom and went back to home to Calgary to look for a fulltime job. Living at home saves a lot of money. Her parents said she can live at home free for one year after she starts her full-time job. The next day Carole walked to the Crowfoot Crossings Mall and dropped into the “KickButt Coffee Shoppes” located in the outside corner of the Food Court, where she has worked part time as a barista and assistant manager during high school and the summers while attending York University. She wanted to talk to her old friends and catch up with the local gossip.

“KickButt Coffee Shoppes” have over 40 locations in Alberta and in British Columbia ski areas, which are owned by Michael Butt and his sister Sarah. The Butt family are well known in Alberta since they support children’s hospital charities in Calgary, Edmonton and overseas in Colombia. It all dates back to 1965 when Dr. Michael Butt Sr. (Michael’s father) was doing his pediatrician internship in Salento Colombia. Salento is a small village 260 km south of Medellin in the centre of the Colombia’s Coffee triangle and the Rain Forest.

Since 1967 Dr. Butt spends two months a year working at the hospital that he and fellow doctors created. The patients at this hospital don’t have to pay, since the doctors are donating their time. Over the years people in the region started donating to the hospital bags of high-quality coffee beans for payment.  Mrs. Samantha Butt (Michaels mother) who also donated her time at the hospital had an idea, to start a coffee shop in Calgary to use some of these coffee beans and donate some of the profits back to the hospital and other charities. So, in 1968 “KickButt Coffee Shoppes” was born. The business expanded to the point that they were the major exporter of Fair-Trade Organic coffee from this region, coffee roaster and own a large trucking fleet in Colombia and Canada. The business employed over 800 people and is very profitable in 2015, they donated over $25 million dollars to the charities they supported.  The coffee business was growing too fast and large for Samantha Butt to operate and she placed her children Michael and Sarah into senior management positions of the company.

After almost 50 years in business Michael and Sarah are thinking of expanding the number of coffee shops by franchising.

At the coffee shop Carol ran into Michael, he congratulated her on her degree. He asked her what she planned on doing now and her future dreams and goals since she was looking for fulltime employment. One of Carols dreams was someday owning her own business since she has a wide background in Accounting and Marketing. Michael had asked her if she owned a “KickButt Coffee Shoppes” what she would do. Since Carol worked as a coffee roaster and barista the pass couple of years, she had a very good knowledge of coffee blending. She told Michael that at York she purchased raw coffee beans and roasted them herself. It was so easy, even her roommates learn how to roast and created different blend of coffees. Some of the ideas Carol came up with are:

1) Introduce a KickButt Loyalty program,

2) Create a gift card program so customers can buy them and give out as gifts,

3) Introduce Breakfast Sandwiches,

4) Add baked goods such as Croissant’s and Donuts,  

5) Blended Frozen Fruit Drinks,

6) Introduce one-hour coffee education workshops where customers pay $15 per session in advance and receive a $10 Gift Card when completed. Types of training can include:

A). How to roast your own coffee (DIY – Do it Yourself),

B). How to create your own coffee blends,

C). Cooking with coffee,

An added benefit of these workshops is that “KickButt Coffee Shoppes” would sell all of the materials needed that they used in the workshops for home use.