Specialty Coffee Groups Join Forces Under Single Name

Months after members approved their merger, two coffee industry groups are bridging a divide across the Atlantic.

To start the new year, the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA) and the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE), which announced they were merging operations last August, revealed that they would unify under a single name: the Specialty Coffee Association.

SCA announced the new brand with a new website  (opens in a new tab), complete with a .coffee domain. The association, in comments on the merger, emphasized that it would maintain a variety of viewpoints in the unified organization.

“Unified but not uniform, we celebrate and nurture diversity,” SCA said in a statement on the site. “We understand the importance of local knowledge and strive to connect every individual with the resources to improve their opportunities and make their voice heard on a global stage.”

Merger talks began last year, with the two groups already sharing a lot of common ground  (opens in a new tab) in both mission and size. According to SprudgeWire, SCAA generated $8 million in revenue yearly, while SCAE generated $5 million per year.

The two groups already collaborated closely on the events production business World Coffee Events  (opens in a new tab), which runs the World Barista Championship each year.

The move to merge was easily approved by the two associations’ members, though not without some dissent. Donald Schoenholt, a cofounder of SCAA and its first president, led an unsuccessful campaign against the merger  (opens in a new tab).

(Couleur/Pixabay)