Kimbo USA Corp.: Bringing the aroma of the Neapolitan blend and tradition with a mission to spread Italian coffee around the world

Coffee is much more than just craftsmanship and technique. It’s an experience that transforms a day into moments of joy. In certain parts of the world, coffee is not just a drink but an elaborate ritual known as the coffee ceremony. Coffee has had a continuously pleasing relationship with people, from amping up early mornings to fueling high-powered business meetings; it is not just a beverage. The exploration of coffee delves deep into a rich reservoir of emotion, tradition and experience.

Kimbo USA Corp. aims to make the seemingly ordinary moment of a cup of coffee into something more spectacular. Focusing on making a unique beverage that represents the finest Neapolitan tradition, Kimbo USA Corp. brings creativity and passion to its blend.

CIO Bulletin had the privilege of interviewing Luca Piccini, CEO of Kimbo USA Corp., about the company’s journey and growth.

Q. What is the story of Kimbo USA Corp.?

During the 1940s, the Rubino family owned a typical local bakery in the heart of Naples, Italy. The three young brothers, Elio, Francesco, and Gerardo, realized the popularity of coffee and developed a specialized expertise that was soon recognized throughout the local area. As a result, the Rubino brothers invested in the new vacuum-can technology and set up a roastery, pouring their passion into the business.

In a few years, their coffee became the most loved in Naples. That was just the first chapter of a successful story that continues to be written today, 60 years later.

Q. Even after being in the market for over 50 years, what factors have led to Kimbo USA Corp.’s exponential market growth?

Though Kimbo Spa has been present in the US market by shipping directly to distributors in the past, it was only in 2021 that Kimbo Spa set up the subsidiary Kimbo USA Corp., which has helped in the exponential growth over the past few years in the USA. Combined with our quality products, Naples heritage, and our local US team, we have quickly gained distribution and positively impacted the Italian coffee culture in the USA.

Q. Coffee means everything for Kimbo USA Corp. How has the company managed to stay true to its product and commitment while growing at a rapid pace?

The central essence of Kimbo is to bring the uniqueness of the Neapolitan coffee experience with its 60 years of meticulous pursuit of quality and authentic local heritage. Building on the craftsmanship of Neapolitan roasting, Kimbo has developed an ingenious skill that has significantly contributed to Kimbo's roasting expertise.

Today, Kimbo continues to leverage this expertise to differentiate roasting levels with specific regard to green coffee, to respect and enhance its original characteristics, and to create a great variety of flavors and solutions suitable for all channels and specific profiles for the US market.

Q. What are the unique steps in Kimbo USA Corp.’s coffee-making process set it apart from its rivals?

The Neapolitan Master Roasting is Kimbo’s trademark: an authentic local tradition always recognizable in every sip. This is the key focus of what makes espresso special in Naples: the iconic Neapolitan dark roast!

Kimbo does not just make coffee a product as the centerpiece of “Made in Italy”, as an added value, but tells and wants to convey the value of “Made in Naples”, the home of coffee, emphasizing the craftsmanship of master roasters. The most recent quality standards guarantee the best result for our products.

Q. Kimbo USA Corp. is not just selling coffee; it is also selling the unique connection the city of Naples has with coffee. Can you tell us a little about this deep connection?

Today, the Neapolitan Master Roasting is Kimbo’s unique selling proposition, a well-recognized characteristic in Italy, where Kimbo is the #2 brand in the retail channel. It is the core of Kimbo’s brand identity and the starting point for developing a great variety of flavors to meet the needs of all international markets and tastes. The link with Naples is also very strong for the origins of the brand. Kimbo tells about the origins of the quality of coffee but also wants to tell how the idea of "Kimbo" and the whole entrepreneurial activity was born.

A trip to Naples is a cultural experience. Neapolitan coffee has a distinctive profile: it is dark toasted, intense and full-bodied, pleasantly persistent, and soft and creamy. Excellent expertise is needed to identify the right roasting degree and ensure the best physical and sensory quality. This is the milestone of Neapolitan coffee: a non-standardized process whose secret lies in the ability to identify the perfect degree of roasting suitable for any coffee origin.

Over the years, Neapolitan coffee culture has been shaped by a long tradition that conceived coffee as a "cross-cultural drink" to be enjoyed on several occasions during the day. Today, coffee's role in Naples — a social ritual to share with other people — has been certified as a universal model of INPAI, the Italian national inventory of the Italian agri-food heritage. UNESCO and MIPAAF, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry policies, also recognized the uniqueness of Neapolitan coffee, which was designated an asset in 2022. Naples blends attention to detail, local tradition, art, and science, and Kimbo holds all this in an unmistakable cup of coffee.

Q. How important has hiring the right personnel been for the rapid growth of the company? What measures does the company take to ensure talent retention?

Kimbo is a well-organized structure where all departments involved in the value chain collaborate and support each other to create value, and efficient synergies are fundamental. Kimbo’s resources have excellent predictive ability that allows the company to have everything needed to meet each customer's ad hoc demands.

In Kimbo, everyone speaks to each other to optimize supplies, create efficiencies in production and shipping, and minimize waste, for economic reasons and for sustainable ones that are very important to Kimbo. In addition, it is essential that Kimbo has people with great creativity and communication skills to convey in the most transparent way possible the values of “Napoletanity” to those interested in knowing more about the world behind a cup of coffee.

The Kimbo USA and International Business Teams work very well together. The collaboration of markets and teams provides excellent support for export growth through valuable services. Trade marketing, logistics, customer service, and a network of sales managers work together on international projects. Cross-functional collaboration is also very important between the US team, corporate marketing, legal, and R&D departments to ensure full synergy for the specific knowledge needed to develop new products that satisfy target markets and meet local quality and legal requirements.

Q. What are Kimbo USA Corp.’s plans for the future?

Our plan includes continued expansion in the US through a city approach. Our ‘Away From Home’ retail and digital channels continue to grow year after year at a steady rate. For our ‘Away From Home’ business, it is important to maintain a city approach as we expand in restaurants, hotels, and cafes (over 800 locations) across the country while remaining disciplined with welcoming national accounts into the Kimbo family where it makes sense. Within retail, we are steadily expanding in both regional accounts and national grocery chains, most recently adding Kimbo to shelves at over 300 grocery stores in the mid-Atlantic region!

Kimbo US digital only launched in late Q4 2021 on Amazon and in November 2022 on our direct site (www.KimboCoffee.com) and has seen tremendous growth across all our digital platforms. We will continue to invest in our Kimbo USA business with our team, marketing, new products, and partnerships as we look to make Kimbo USA the number-one market for Kimbo globally.

A brief biography of Luca Piccini

Luca Piccini is the CEO of Kimbo USA Corp., founded in 2021 as a subsidiary of Kimbo Spa. The company was founded in Naples in 1963 by the three Rubino brothers, and today present in over 100 countries in the World. Luca joined Kimbo in 2019 and has over 25 years of international experience in the FMCG industry, managing countries, building brands, negotiating with international key accounts, and managing multi-channel operations (B2C and B2B).