Cafedirect
If you’re a Fairtrade coffee connoisseur, chances are you’ll already be familiar with Cafédirect’s brilliant brews. Not only were they the first Fairtrade hot drinks brand in the UK, they’re also the largest and are a certified B Corp too.
As you’d expect, Cafédirect does right by the producers they work with and are committed to helping smallholder growers thrive – now and in the future. That’s why they invest 50% of profits into Producers Direct, on top of the Fairtrade premiums they pay.
What is Producers Direct? It’s a charity run by growers, for growers, which improves livelihoods and creates a sustainable future. They organise training and education on everything from diversifying crops in response to climate change to bookkeeping.
This way of doing business benefits everyone involved. It gives farmers security and ever-evolving knowledge on growing top-quality coffee as well as being good for community wellbeing. This in turn allows Cafédirect to get great tasting, continually improving coffee into your mug at home. Or, hot chocolate or tea if those are more your bag – they do luxurious hot chocolate and a range called London Tea, too.
Plus, Cafédirect is making efforts to take care of the planet, with at least a third of their coffee being Soil Association Certified.
Cafédirect was launched in 1991, shortly after a global collapse in coffee prices which was impacting smallholder growers and their communities.
In response to the crisis, Oxfam joined forces with three grower cooperatives – in Peru, Costa Rica and Mexico – to offer a better, more personal and direct way to trade than the conventional coffee market. The cooperatives each shipped a single container of coffee to the UK and that was the beginning of Cafédirect.
Today, Cafédirect is led by John Steel as CEO, who oversees their mission of making amazing hot drinks that improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers.
CEO
John Steel
