The Salas Martínez brothers, without meaning to, broke the myth that the third generation is the one that founds family businesses. In case of cafe martinez It was the opposite: Marcelo, Mauro and Claudia turned the business founded by their grandfather almost 90 years ago into a chain of 201 stores (including their own and franchises) that operate in Argentina, but also in Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.
Which was the key? “Professionalization, team building, but fundamentally the genuine interest in helping others to also achieve success”says Marcelo Salas Martínez, managing partner of the chain.
The history of Café Martínez is the forbidden love story between Atiliano Martínez and his cousin Justa. It began in secret in Pola de Lena, the Asturian town where they were from and ended in Argentina where they decided to settle to start their family and flee from the Spanish Civil War that was already looming and in which Atiliano was determined not to participate; a few years before he had already put his body and almost his life fighting in Africa against the Moors.
On Argentine soil, Atiliano found work at Casa Torres, one of the main coffee roasters in the city, and there he met his second great love: coffee.. Having learned the trade and understood the keys to the business, he decided to become independent. she ripped in 1933 with the name The Guest.
It started in a small rented place on Mexico street until in the 1960s I was able to buy the property in Talcahuano at 948 meters from Marcelo T. de Alvear street, a place that still works today and where Soon, with the support of the Government of the City of Buenos Aires, a museum will also be operating that will cover the history of Buenos Aires through the history of the company and the coffee.
Since 1995, the Salas Martínez brothers have been opening Café Martínez branches and later franchising
The business of the Martinez marriage was import coffee, roast it and distribute it; Right between the people who passed through the door of the premises and her husband through the wholesale channel. “The brand was El Convidado, but the reality is that customers identified him more by his last name, so he ended up adopting the name Casa Martínez; Later, when we entered the company, we directly named it Café Martínez,” Salas Martínez told iProfessional.
Atiliano passed away in 1975 and the company remained in the hands of his widow (who passed away in 2005), Olga, the daughter of the couple, and Paulino Rodríguez, a partner they had until the ’80s when his part was bought and the founding family remained the sole owner. For 60 years the business was prosperous, but it maintained its structure as Atiliano had set it up until, after Starting in 1995, Marcelo, Mauro and Claudia, three of the six children of Olga Martínez de Salas, began to work at the company. They revolutionized the family business and the industry.
“Mauro joined in the ’80s and one of the most important things he did was manage the purchase of the partner’s part and put the administrative issues of the business in order. Then I joined in ’85 and a little while later Claudia. The three of us began to think about how to grow the business,” says Salas Martínez.
The first result of that meeting between the brothers was the development of gourmet coffee concepttoday called specialty coffee. As in 1933, the Salas Martínez brothers import coffee, roast it and distribute it, but unlike their grandparents, now they do it from their own coffee shops with their own brand. “What we did was that coffee stopped being the end point of events to become the starting point, we managed to make coffee the protagonist“explains the businessman.
Since 1995 and gradually the Salas Martínez brothers they were opening branchesbut when they reached the fifth in 2000 they realized that they couldn’t do it alone; if they wanted to continue expanding they had to franchise and they did.
“The reality is that we knew that the brand gave for more, but we had neither the capital to continue investing nor the time for more branches. Franchising is a way to continue growingbut leveraged on the capital and time of third parties with all our know-how and support,” says the businessman, who became president of the Argentine Association of Brands and Franchises (AAMF) between 2014 and 2017.
Today, Café Martínez is a chain of 201 stores that operate in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Bolivia.
Multiplied to its maximum power
Café Martínez, says Salas Martínez, was more than a business for his grandfather and his brother Ángel, who arrived in Argentina a few years later. Café Martínez was the meeting place for the Asturian community. There, at Casa Martínez, Atiliano received his compatriots (even with a roof and food) and helped them set up his own business.
“That is why we always say that help and accompaniment is part of the ADN of the company. We help our franchisees, and even our colleagues, to set up a commercial business and we pass on all our knowledge about coffee quality and roasting so that they can achieve success with their own SMEs,” says the businessman.
Now Café Martínez has 189 stores distributed throughout the country, of which only 15 are owned. They also have 12 more stores abroad: 3 in Uruguay, 9 in Paraguay and 2 in Bolivia.
“Although we have had individual franchises in the United States, Spain, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but they worked badly because both parties made mistakes and we decided to dismantle them to focus on the region. Now what we do is first land ourselves with our own office and stores , then we franchised because the reality is that it is too much for an individual franchisee to install a brand in a country, so we decided to make the effort ourselves,” he says.
Professionalization and team building were for Salas Martínez two fundamental aspects for the growth of the companybut he specifically points out that the key was to help others to also achieve success and he says this not only because of the network of franchisees but also because of the 400 employees that he uses directly today.
Café Martínez has already opened Smart Service stores where customers place their order at the terminals or from their cell phones
Proof of this is the flight reached by Leandro Canabe who joined Café Martínez in 2008 as development manager to reach in 2011 General Manager and for three years, become the only non-family member of the company. For this year, advances the businessman, they plan to incorporate (and develop) the company between 25 and 30 other people.
The future for Café Martínez has arrived
Close followers of trends, the Salas Martínez brothers always try to be one step ahead in terms of innovation. They innovated with coffee, with the consumption experience and since 2019 also with the shopping experience incorporating the locales Smart Service in which, without queues or waiting times, customers place their order at the self-management terminals or through their cell phones and then, for a geolocation systemthey receive the order at the table they have chosen.
In addition, these premises, which for now there is one in the Italian Hospital and another in the Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, They have digital billboards and refrigerators with transparent screens where you can see the product and the information of each one, and a “selfie latte” printer to print photos in the cafe.
“Now we are bringing smart technology to all stores so that customers can buy how they want; be it Take-Away, service at the table or by cell phone; We are very focused on the development of omnichannel”, the businessman advances.
Café Martínez, points out the businessman, passed the two great waves of coffee and now while they are going through the third they are preparing for the fourth: the first, he explains, had to do with the industrialization of coffee and was the one his grandfather joined; the second had to do with the premiumization of coffee and the concern of coffee growers for the origin and type of bean, as well as the type and quality of roasting and the consumer experience in the store.
The business of the Martínez couple was importing coffee, roasting it and distributing it
“In Argentina we were the managers of this change; in the United States, Starbucks“, Salas Martínez says proudly. The third wave, he continues, is the current one and has to do with a new premiumization, but with a focus on the sustainability of the business.
However, Café Martínez is preparing for what will be the fourth wave that has to do with the deepening of sustainability and, quoting the former CEO of Unilever, Paul Polman, Salas Martínez explains that actions are no longer enough to prevent damage to the planet, but now what it is about is to see how to regenerate it.
“And without a doubt the fourth wave, which we will surely see in a decade, will come from what they do in Asia; fundamentally in China or India, two countries that drive what is coming, what is a trend. In this sense, Café Martínez is looking at what those regions are doing and we are looking at how to get on this fourth wave. We have a person specially dedicated to working with the purpose of the company and sustainability”, he advances.