Continuing Case: Le Grind Coffee Distributors

Mara Comas and Javier Bianchi often tell the Le Grind Caf$$ customers the story of how they fell in love the

first time they literally bumped into each other at a coffee shop near their Austin, Texas, campus. At that

time, they were sophomores majoring in business. After mutually apologizing to each other, they learned

of their shared passion for great coffee and delicious baked goods. They described similar dreams of

developing a coffee distribution business that sold the highest quality award$-$winning organic, fair$-$trade

roasted coffee beans. Their following dates were spent finding, visiting, and evaluating as many highly

rated coffee shops and bakeries as they could afford!

Fast forward ten years: After graduating and working in professional accounting for five years, Mara and

Javier officially started their $"$Le Grind Coffee Distributors" business three years ago in Austin, Texas. Their

suppliers provide year$-$round organic, fair$-$trade coffee from Columbia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, and Hawaii.

Le Grind roasts and sells coffee in $5-$ and $10-$pound vacuum sealed bags so that it stays fresh and has a

reliable transport and shelf life until use. The roasting variety includes light roast, medium roast, dark roast,

and expresso. Le Grind added a new coffee from Uganda in their second year. Also, Le Grind has developed

two coffee blends, a pumpkin spice seasonal product for the autumn, and a holiday spice seasonal product

for year$-$end festivities.

In their first year, they built their business distributing coffee to many customers in Texas, Oklahoma, and

New Mexico. During their second year, they expanded to Louisiana and Arkansas. During their third year,

the expanded further to new customers in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. They have enjoyed

continuous growth each year and are now serving many customers coffee shops, restaurants, hotels,

grocery stores and corporations $($such as accounting firms$)$ in these eight U$.$S$.$ states.

Mara and Javier are thrilled about how their accounting education prepared them for their successful

business launch. However, even though they enjoy growth in new customers and increasing sales revenues

and net income each year, they are interested in performing data analysis to better understand what is

happening to their sales mix that could be negatively impacting their gross margin $($Gross Profit$/$Sales

Revenues$),$ which has decreased $2\mathrm{.}4\%$ between $2023$ and $2025.$ Here are their summary comparative

income statements from the past three years: Le Grind Comparative Income Statements Continuing Case Chapter $4$

Feel free to review the data provided for Chapter $4$ to guide your answer. Design the project plan for

analyzing gross profits utilizing the matrix provided. Analyze the data with the descriptive and diagnostic

objectives of better understanding how and why Le Grind Coffee Distributor's gross margin is decreasing

from $2023-2025$ based on CoffeeQrigin, CustomerCategory, and CustomerState,

Gross Margin Data Analysis Project Plan:Continuing Case Chapter $4$

Feel free to review the data provided for Chapter $4$ to guide your answer. Design the project plan for

analyzing gross profits utilizing the matrix provided. Analyze the data with the descriptive and diagnostic

objectives of better understanding how and why Le Grind Coffee Distributor's gross margin is decreasing

from $2023-2025$ based on CoffeeQrigin, CustomerCategory, and CustomerState,

Gross Margin Data Analysis Project Plan: