An inspirational and accountable business
Leaders of the pack Winning awards offers valuable independent endorsement and enables us to build our credentials with various audiences. Last year it was particularly satisfying to be recognised for both our pioneering business model and for the fantastic quality of our products.
In June, Cafédirect was crowned Ethical Business of the Year at the Triodos Women in Ethical Business Awards (WEBA) in recognition of its outstanding achievements. The awards honour women who run the nation’s best ethical businesses and are sponsored by The Times newspaper, which also published a profile of our CEO, Anne MacCaig. For Cafédirect, this recognition helps to meet our goal to demonstrate how
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business can and should be done. As Anne said in her acceptance speech, “I really hope that this award inspires lots of other organisations to work in partnership with growers because of the enormous impact it has on lives around the world.” Anne dedicated the award to the quarter of a million smallholder growers Cafédirect works with. Andrew Ethuru from Michimikuru Tea Growers’ Factory in Kenya shared his pride in the accolade, “It’s great news, not only for Cafédirect, but for us in Michimikuru as we are all one family. We are delighted and we share the happiness.” That same month, Cafédirect’s San Cristobal Drinking Chocolate and our Decaffeinated Medium Roast Fresh Ground Coffee were both awarded prestigious Gold Stars at The Guild of Fine Food’s annual Great Taste Awards. Regarded as the food and drink industry’s Oscars, the scheme is the UK’s largest independent evaluation of gourmet food and drink. Having the gold star award stickers on our packs offers consumers independent confirmation of the premium taste and quality of our products, a valuable asset to make us stand out from the rest. The farmers who grow and handpick
cocoa beans for our San Cristobal Drinking Chocolate believe their speedy processing methods are behind its great taste. Their secret is to ensure the white cocoa flesh from inside the pods is processed in less than six hours, so the cocoa is at its freshest. The direct relationship between Cafédirect and the cocoa growers enables them to control this process themselves rather than leave it in the hands of middlemen, like many mass producers do, compromising the freshness and quality of the cocoa. Made with 40% of the finest quality cocoa from the small town of San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic, and mixed only with Fairtrade sugar, Cafédirect’s San Cristobal Drinking Chocolate is one of the purest available, with a rich, creamy taste. Abel Fernandez, Operations Manager at Conacado, the co-operative where the cocoa is grown, said, “We feel especially proud of winning because the product stands for quality, transparency, community, social justice and respect for the environment, which are the main principles of our organisation. For reasons like this, at Conacado we’re prouder by the day to ‘BE CAFÉDIRECT’.”