Santas Koffie

More About Santas Koffie

Santas Koffie was founded in Rotterdam in 1988 by Rob Kooij. The company’s inception was driven by a specific vision for packaging. Shortly after its founding, Kooij introduced reusable steel coffee tins featuring a deposit system, ensuring that sustainable packaging was a cornerstone of the business from day one.

Since 2008, Santas Koffie has been based in De Vertrekhal Oranjelijn in the Rotterdam port area. This location is situated in the Merwe-Vierhavens, a district where businesses, workshops, and new urban developments coexist. In 2016, Mocca d’Or acquired Santas Koffie, with the announcement that Santas would continue to operate as an independent company under the leadership of Wouter Jansen van Velsen.

Production, Quality Control, and Roasting

Santas describes its production process as a series of steps, spanning from the sourcing of green coffee to quality control, blending, roasting, cupping, packaging, and delivery. According to their own process, a certified grader inspects the green coffee, after which up to three coffees can be blended before the cupping process takes place.

Santas describes its coffees as “slow roast”. A professional blog from 2019 mentioned the use of a Giesen roaster, though current official information does not specify a current model. There are also discrepancies across their information channels: Santas’s own pages refer to a Rotterdam-based roastery, while current text from the parent company states that Santas’s Fairtrade and organic coffees are roasted in Zwolle. According to that same information, the filling of the reusable tins takes place at a social workshop in Rotterdam.

Assortment and Product Forms

The official range includes eight blends available in reusable tins. These coffees are offered in four formats: standard grind, fast filter, Fresh Brew, and whole beans. Documented products include Melange No. 5, No. 9, No. 010, No. 12, No. 14, No. 15, No. 19, No. 020, No. 070, and Melange Single Origin.

Within the assortment, several product lines are further detailed. Melange No. 14 is available in both a regular version and a dark roast version. Melange No. 15 is described as a single-origin coffee from Mexico, rather than a blend. For hospitality clients, Santas specifically highlights Melange No. 12, No. 17, and No. 19.

Origin and Supply Chain Information

The product pages list origins such as Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Tanzania, Brazil, Kenya, Honduras, Guatemala, and India. For Melange Single Origin, a direct link is made to Coopasv in Santana de Vargem, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. This cooperative is described as Fairtrade and consists of approximately one hundred farmers, with cultivation taking place at altitudes between 900 and 1340 meters.

Santas mentions that its Fairtrade coffees carry the Max Havelaar Fairtrade certification. The company also cites Bio and SKAL certifications. Aside from Coopasv, no current, publicly documented farm-level partnerships were found in the researched materials.

Sustainability and Reusable Packaging

Packaging is a recurring theme in the public information regarding Santas. The company states that its reusable tins circulate an average of more than 120 times. According to Santas, a single tin can prevent the use of over 1,440 single-use plastic packages or 60,000 aluminum coffee pods. Additionally, the homepage lists an annual packaging reduction of 159,247 units.

According to Santas and Mocca d’Or, the tins are cleaned and refilled by a social workshop in Rotterdam. Santas also mentions a partnership with Social Capital, focusing on circular packaging, training, and employment for people distanced from the labor market. Examples of involved locations or networks include Museion, Omniversum, Happy Tosti, the Koninklijke Academie van Beeldende Kunsten, and Heineken.

B2B Market, Equipment, and Location

Santas targets SMEs, large corporate clients, and the hospitality sector. A profile from M4H Rotterdam reports that the company serves the business market exclusively. According to that profile, the majority of the volume goes to large corporations and SME clients, with approximately 20 percent going to hospitality. The official navigation also includes its own webshop.

Beyond coffee, Santas offers coffee machinery across categories such as semi-automatic, fully automatic, filter equipment, and grinders. The Santas pages list model and brand lines from the likes of Egro, Victoria Arduino, Mythos, Fiorenzato, Simonelli, and Animo. In doing so, the company positions its offering not just around coffee, but also around equipment and professional workplace application.

The visiting address is Benjamin Franklinstraat 501, Havennr. 285, 3029 AC Rotterdam. The official site mentions that account managers can receive clients in De Vertrekhal. It also describes how visitors can enjoy coffee there while Santas explains their coffee and sustainability concept. However, there is no documented independent public café or fixed public tasting program.

Team, press, and public activities

Rob Kooij is publicly documented as the founder. Wouter Jansen van Velsen is mentioned as the owner of Mocca d’Or, which Santas acquired in 2016, after which he remained involved with the company. M4H Rotterdam documented Nathalie de Bleijser as office manager, with eleven years of experience at Santas at the time. Her responsibilities included daily operations, finance, reporting, orders, and procurement.

Their own “About us” page mentions roles such as sales support, administration, account managers, technical service, and baristas, but no individual names. A currently publicly named head roaster was not identified in the researched material. Santas has further been mentioned in reports regarding the acquisition by Mocca d’Or, in a profile of Change Inc., and in M4H Rotterdam. The company was also a sponsor of the Gaia Green Awards in 2019 and 2021; this concerns sponsorship, not a received award.

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