What kind of business partnerships does Cafédirect have with other parties?
Fairtrade & Sustainability - Cafédirect case study
Partnership is common parlance in today's business world, but Cafédirect's ethos has always been based on such a structure, whether it is with the producers or its external retail sales team Bridgethorne - whose staff has accompanied Cafédirect on visits to producer countries to help them understand how Fairtrade works in practice.
Beyond its relationships with its producers, Cafédirect's key partners are:
- Twin Trading.
- This partner manages all aspects of Cafédirect's coffee buying and planning. It also delivers the Gold Standard trading policy of tailor-made business support & development with the producers in coffee growing regions around the world.
- Traidcraft.
- Plays a similar partnership role with Teadirect's tea producer partners in Africa.
- Oxfam.
- Has a PS & D role with Teadirect's producer partners in Sri Lanka.
- Bridgethorne.
- This company manages Cafédirect and Teadirect sales to UK multiple retailers.
- Equal Exchange.
- Manages the sales to independent and healthfood stores. The organisation was instrumental in driving Cafédirect's first listings in the multiple sector.
- Food service.
- Out-of-home sales of hot beverages are Cafédirect's latest target. The company has embarked on a branded vending partnership with coffee fresh and is also one of the first Fairtrade suppliers to be listed by Compass, the largest contract-catering supplier in the world.
- UK Fairtrade supporters and individual consumers.
- The effective campaigning by Fairtrade supporters across the UK helped Cafédirect gain its first supermarket listings in the early 1990s.
