Case Study: Community Coffee Company achieves trade spend visibility and optimized promotions with UpClear's BluePlanner

Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice UpClear features our client Community Coffee Company

Community Coffee Company, a fourth‑generation roaster founded in 1919 and selling across 24+ states and a route of more than 17,000 stores, needed to replace an outgrown home‑grown trade promotion system to better serve both its Grocery Sales and Coffee Service divisions and handle complex Direct Store Delivery (DSD) requirements. After an RFP and engagement with Clarkston Consulting, they selected UpClear’s BluePlanner trade promotion solution for its functional fit and strong ERP/DSD integration capabilities.

UpClear implemented BluePlanner in a remote rollout that began in early 2020, with 30 users going live in May; the deployment integrated store‑level promotional discounts into the ERP and Field Sales handhelds, standardized account planning, automated promotional event development, and centralized settlement of trade and non‑trade spend. The UpClear solution gave Community Coffee Company clearer visibility into planned trade spend, accrued customer liability and actual spend, enabled measurement of promotional effectiveness, and let the company leverage BluePlanner Analytics to optimize trade spending across promotions and channels.

Community Coffee Company