Cafes Monte Bianco: Building a Profit Plan "We are facing a deciston that may well affect the future ofour company. I expect that each ofyou has adequate information to support your arguments. I don't want to spend our time talking about what might be without actual data. " Giacomo Salvetti, CEO of Cafes Monte Bianco, had called a second meeting to delineate the future of the company. The company had weathered the Italian recession of 2011-2013 resulting from the economic austerity program that followed the Eurozone debt crisis. But after a few years of positive economic growth, the Italian economy stalled again in 2017-2018. Manufacturing private brand coffees for supermarkets in Italy had saved Cafes Monte Bianco in this latest downturn. However, it was not clear to him whether the company should continue to invest in this market. Cafes Monte Bianco's top management team was all in the room with the exception of Roberto Bianchi, R&D manager, who was in Colombia. The rest of the team were Giovanni Calvaro, marketing director; Paolo Cantal-a, manufacturing director; Dino Bastico, financial officer; and Carla Salvetti, director of strategic planning. Cafes Monte Bianco, located in Milan, was a manufacturer and distributor of premium coffee. Monte Bianco coffees, distributed throughout Europe, had a reputation for producing some of the finest coffees on the continent. The company had been founded by Mario Salvetti, grandfather of the current CEO. Mario Salvetti, after spending several decades in South America working at coffee plantations, had come back to Italy to combine the best beans that he had encountered during his career. Quickly, Monte Bianco's coffee became known around Milan for its taste and high quality. Mario passed this knowledge to his son, Ruggero, who passed it on to Giacomo. The Salvetti's family had owned the company for over eighty years. Every year, Giacomo spent two months traveling around the world visiting coffee plantations, learning about new beans, and maintaining his relationships with coffee producers. The company also had a laboratory with five people who tried new combinations of flavors, tested quality standards for products already in the market, and created new packaging and delivery technologies such as capsules and pods. These people were in close contact with producers and also traveled frequently to visit plantations.