SIMBA Chain, Mexico's Toks Restaurant Chain Sign MOU to Ensure Supply Chain Integrity of Sustainably Sourced Coffee

SOUTH BEND, Ind., May 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Every day, customers of Restaurantes Toks 208 locations across Mexico enjoy steaming cups of Café Americano, espresso, cappuccino, and traditional coffee crafted from the company's own sustainably sourced, expertly roasted and ground coffee beans. For many, welcoming the day with Toks coffee is a daily ritual to be savored.

Meeting customers' expectations for quality and sustainability is not simply a source of pride for the popular restaurant chain owned by Grupo Gigante, S.A.B. DE C.V., but integral to the Toks business model. So important that Toks has signed a formal memorandum of understanding with blockchain innovator SIMBA Chain, to develop a distributed application (Dapp) prototype to register and track coffee beans purchased, processed, packaged, and sold by Toks, ensuring the integrity of its coffee supply chain and enabling it to better differentiate coffee products.

Toks is leader in sustainability practices. The company works directly with cooperatives of small farmers, whose coffee beans go into every cup of coffee served. The supply chain is complex; the coffee beans are grown, harvested, graded, deshelled, roasted, and shipped to each restaurant. Toks turned to SIMBA Chain and the University of Notre Dame to gain greater visibility and traceability in its supply chain. SIMBA Chain worked with Notre Dame to define the pilot during a visit to Toks and the farming communities in late 2019. Among the goals is to validate and ensure quality along each supply chain step and help broaden coffee product lines to enable new, innovative business models for more ethical and sustainable production for the farming communities.

SIMBA Chain's Smart Contract as a Service (SCaaS) was recently launched to enable companies to quickly develop and deploy business-specific applications. Smart contracts are attractive to many industries because they establish an audit-able, unchangeable history of transactions. As supply chains have become more complicated and vital to ensuring customer satisfaction, blockchain and smart contracts have become an increasingly attractive solution to ensuring supply chain integrity.

Joel Neidig, CEO and Co-founder of SIMBA Chain, says his company's blockchain platform is a great solution for food and beverage companies facing regulatory and consumer demand for provenance information on consumable products. "Smart contracts are a powerful tool for food producers and restaurant companies that want to bring enhanced security and traceability to their supply chain. I commend Toks for taking a leadership role in developing a blockchain-enabled supply chain prototype that adds value for coffee farmers, restaurants, customers, and to the food and restaurant industries at large."

Gustavo Pérez Berlanga, Senior Vice President of sustainability and social responsibility for Toks Restaurant Group, says the restaurant group has high hopes for the relationship with SIMBA Chain. "Our customers expect us to uphold the highest standards in sustainability and food quality when they dine with us. It is important that we authenticate, track, and trace every bag by farmer, coffee grade as well as production dates. SIMBA Chain's smart contract solution will help Toks maintain the high quality that our customers expect and enjoy."

The project is expected to begin May 2020, with the blockchain supply chain prototype delivered to Toks by September 2020.

About SIMBA Chain, Inc.
SIMBA Chain's cloud-based, Smart Contract as a Service (SCaaS) platform enables industry and governments to quickly develop and deploy Web 3.0 distributed applications (Dapps) for many blockchains and across many platforms. SIMBA Chain was the recipient of TechPoint's 2019 Mira Award for New Product of the Year and 1st Source Bank's 2019 Commercialization Award. The SIMBA Chain platform supports Ethereum, Quorum, rsk, Stellar and Hyperledger as well as other blockchain protocols.

About Restaurantes TOKS, S.A de C.V.

Since 1971, Toks Restaurantes has become one of the favorite restaurants for Mexican families. At the end of March 2020, Toks had 208 restaurants nationwide with over 30 million consumers each year. It holds the most prestigious award (Distintivo H) granted by the Mexican Tourism Ministry for its healthy and food security practices. In 2006, Toks became a member of the United Nations Global Compact Sustainability Supply Chain Working and has been awarded national and internationally for its socially responsible and sustainable practices.

Media Contact:
Anjon Roy
Phone: 574.914.4446
Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE SIMBA Chain