Caffeine for the Café Market: Caffè Vergnano Focuses on Women

Starting in June 2025, Coca-Cola HBC Hungary, through its Caffè Vergnano brand, will take the development of the local café culture to a new level. With the debut of the Women in Coffee program, the company is launching a comprehensive training initiative for the hospitality sector alongside a social awareness and mindset-shaping campaign. One of the program’s key goals is the professional development of female baristas. In recent years, the company has become one of the Top 3 players in the domestic HoReCa coffee market.

Caffè Vergnano on a growth trajectory

Coca-Cola HBC Hungary, the exclusive distributor of the premium Italian coffee brand Caffè Vergnano, saw its parent company acquire a 30% stake in the family-owned Casa del Caffè Vergnano in October 2021. The premium Italian coffee products have been available in Hungary since January 2022. Over the past two years, the company has doubled its number of HoReCa customers to 550 establishments, with sales volumes in the sector until the end of 2024 increased by 55% compared to the data from the previous year.

Coca-Cola HBC Hungary has heavily invested in evolving the country’s coffee culture and educating its customers in the HoReCa sector on making high-quality coffee. Since 2020, the company has provided over 3,000 hours of training, enriching the domestic HoReCa sector with more than 4,000 trained baristas.

Coca-Cola HBC Hungary offers a comprehensive service package to its customers: premium coffee machines, grinders, branded cups and glasses, and other essential tools for customer service. Additionally, it provides marketing support, barista training, seasonal recipes, and full-service maintenance to its contracted partners.

Now, starting June 2025, the company is raising the bar once again by launching the Women in Coffee program in Hungary—offering not only professional development for the hospitality sector but also running an awareness campaign targeted at consumers.

The Women In Coffee Program

Surprisingly, a large number of women work in the coffee industry: 70% of coffee plantation workers are women, and a quarter of all coffee farms are owned by women. Despite this, significant gender inequality remains in areas such as access to education, financial services, and trade opportunities. Women in Coffee is Caffè Vergnano’s global social responsibility initiative, launched in 2018 by CEO and owner Carolina Vergnano. The program is partnered with the International Women’s Coffee Alliance (IWCA).

The initiative has been successful in Italy for several years. In participating cafés, customers can support women working on coffee farms directly by purchasing items from the pink collection (cups, glasses, and other merchandise).

A unique opportunity for the Hungarian hospitality sector

In June 2025, Coca-Cola HBC Hungary is launching Women in Coffee, aiming to develop the skills and social awareness of participating HoReCa customers. Flagship Women in Coffee stores are planned to open not only in Budapest but also in cities like Szeged, Pécs, and around Lake Balaton—areas where consumers are open to embracing innovative, socially responsible concepts.

The company will provide full professional and marketing support to carefully selected hospitality partners who will receive limited-edition coffee products, specialized barista tools, and marketing support to create their own "pink cafés." In addition, HoReCa owners will receive serious help in the preparation of their business plan and marketing activities.

The program places a specific focus on ensuring that the majority-female representatives delegated by participating HoReCa establishments take part in personalized training and professional barista education, thereby supporting the development of skilled female baristas within the sector.

How the program addresses challenges in the HoReCa sector

The hospitality sector is highly sensitive to quality, relying heavily on the preparedness of service staff and the ingredients, recipes, and tools they use. According to experts from Coca-Cola HBC, HoReCa owners in the sector often have little to no time to focus on long-term planning—such as improving their staff’s coffee knowledge, earning professional barista qualifications, or incorporating distinctive marketing tools into their businesses.

“I’m very excited about our plans for Hungary because beyond raising awareness and promoting social responsibility, the Women in Coffee program also provides business, professional, and marketing support to our participating hospitality partners. Combined with the exceptional quality of Caffè Vergnano’s coffee products, this can bring real change to their operations,” explained Carolina Vergnano, CEO and owner of Caffè Vergnano.

The Hungarian program was officially introduced at a closed event on June 5, 2025, aboard the BOATanic Terrace & Bar in Budapest, in the presence of invited media representatives, participating HoReCa business owners, and other key hospitality partners of Coca-Cola HBC Hungary.