Cafédirect

Cafédirect is a long established and widely recognised UK drinks brand and the founder of fair-trade coffee and tea in the UK.

Having advised Cafédirect back in 2005 on their first retail share issue, we were delighted to work with the company again in 2011 as lead advisers on a £1.8 million capital raising. The new investment came from a range of institutional and retail investors with Oikocredit being the lead investor. The funds raised were used to buy back the shares of three of the founding charity shareholders in Cafédirect and for business development purposes.

Cafédirect operates a unique PPP (Producer Partnership Programme) business model whereby it purchases 100% of its tea, coffee and chocolate through fair-trade but then goes “beyond fair-trade ” because it reinvests one third of its annual retained profits back into its grower supply base. Cafédirect’s PPP model has raised over £4 million since 2004 and these vital additional funds allow the growers to invest in their businesses, improve environmental performance and social infrastructure in their region.

Richard Scanlon, CFO of Cafédirect

“It was a pleasure to work with the Triodos team on what was quite a challenging deal because they really understand our business and its objectives and our respective organisations clearly have shared values”