A Brand with a Soul
During the uncertain period that followed FAEMA, I divided my time between two activities. With ITALIA IN, I took my first steps in the world of ceramic tiles. With DOROMA, I remained connected to the world I knew best. The world of coffee. From the first day, I knew DOROMA had to be more than merely the name of a company. The brand had to tell a story. It had to have an identity of its own.
It had to possess a soul. For years, I had observed how major brands presented their products. They did not sell coffee alone. They sold a feeling. An experience. A memory. That was what I wanted to do as well. But in my own way. I wanted someone holding a package of DOROMA coffee to think of far more than coffee. I wanted them, if only for a moment, to think of Italy. Of a sunlit square in a small village.
Of an espresso drunk standing at the counter. Of the sound of an espresso machine. Of the aroma of freshly ground coffee slowly filling an establishment. To me, coffee was never only a drink. It was a moment when people came together. A moment when conversations began. When friendships were born. When business was done. And when sometimes even decisions were made that could change the course of a life. I had already discovered that years before at FAEMA.
People entered a café to drink a cup of coffee. But they often remained for the conversation. I wanted that human warmth to continue living in DOROMA. That is why I paid attention not only to the coffee's flavor. Its presentation also had to be right. The packaging. The appearance. The cups. Every small detail mattered. I believed quality should already be visible before the first sip was taken.
The she-wolf in the logo referred to my Italian origins and the legend of Romulus and Remus. In truth, nothing more needed to be said. When people saw that image, they had to feel Italy. I was Italian. I lived and worked in Belgium. With DOROMA, I tried to unite those two worlds. The seriousness and reliability I had learned to appreciate in Belgium. And the warmth and passion of Italy that I had always carried within me.
Everything had to tell the same story. The name. The logo. The packaging. The cups. The coffee itself. Because a brand is not born from a single beautiful image or one well-chosen name. It is born when all of its elements together inspire the same feeling. For the first time in my career, I no longer exclusively represented someone else's product. Behind DOROMA stood my own name. My own family. My own reputation. That changed everything.
When a customer was satisfied, I felt it personally. But when something went wrong, I felt that just as strongly. I could not hide behind a large company or head office. The customer knew me. He had bought from me. He therefore counted on me. DOROMA thus became far more than a coffee brand. It became a promise. The promise that the coffee would be good. That it would be prepared correctly.
That I would be available if a problem arose. And that I would keep my word. My technical experience at FAEMA helped me every day. I knew that even the finest coffee could not taste good if the grind was wrong, the machine performed poorly, or maintenance was neglected.
That is why I never visited a customer only to take an order. I also observed how the coffee was prepared. I gave advice. I helped when something was not working well. And I explained how the customer could obtain the best result from both coffee and machine. I did not come only to sell something. I helped the customer make sure that, in the cup, DOROMA truly delivered the quality promised by its name.
To me, that made all the difference. Selling did not mean writing down an order and then disappearing. Selling meant taking responsibility for what you had offered. Some customers may have found my way of working unusual. Others listened with great interest. But almost all noticed the same thing. I did not speak like someone who merely wanted to sell as many packages of coffee as possible. I spoke like someone who loved his profession. I did not have to pretend.
I truly believed in what I was saying. And throughout my life, I found that people can feel that. A customer may forget the price you quoted many years before. But they are far less likely to forget how you treated them. Whether you listened. Whether you came when a problem arose. Whether you kept your word. To me, that was the true meaning of service.
At DOROMA, the lessons I had learned earlier at FAEMA and Douwe Egberts bore my own name for the first time. That brought freedom. But also responsibility. When I worked for someone else, an error could ultimately still be attributed to the company. At DOROMA, every error was mine as well. Every complaint touched my reputation. Every promise had to be kept by me.
Perhaps that was precisely why I worked so hard. I did not only want customers to buy DOROMA. I wanted them to choose it again. Not because I pushed them. But because their first experience had been good. That was when I began to understand what truly makes a brand strong. Not the first sale.
But the trust that brings a customer back. Of course, not everything was easy. Every entrepreneur knows disappointment. A customer who leaves. An order you counted on that never comes. An invoice that remains unpaid. A problem for which no solution is immediately found. And the nights spent awake wondering whether you made the right decision. I experienced such moments too.
But I continued. Customer after customer. Order after order. Cup after cup. Little by little, I began to understand that I was not only selling coffee. I was building relationships. Some customers became loyal. Others became acquaintances. And a few even became friends. Those relationships would later prove priceless in my professional life. Products can change. Companies can disappear. Markets can transform completely.
But a relationship built on honesty and mutual respect can last for many years. Today, I think of DOROMA with great affection. Not only because it was my first coffee brand. But above all, because it was the first time I could build a brand that truly reflected my own vision of entrepreneurship. A brand with an Italian soul. Established in Belgium. Built on quality. Service.
Responsibility. Trust. And human relationships. DOROMA taught me something that remained with me for the rest of my life. A company does not become great through its buildings. Or its machines. Or even through revenue alone. A company gains value through the people who place their trust in it. Through the care with which it is built. And through the love of the profession hidden behind every product.
Perhaps that was ultimately what I was trying to create with DOROMA. Not only a coffee people could taste. But a feeling they could remember. And sometimes such a memory returns unexpectedly, many years later... through nothing more than the aroma of a simple cup of coffee.