Lexington Catering and Pact Coffee have announced an exclusive partnership that enables offices across the Lexington business to contribute directly to the development of coffee growing communities across nine countries through Pact’s direct-trade supply chain model.
Pact and Lexington’s exclusive collaboration will focus primarily on coffee grown by Cafeina, a collective of 1,868 women in Brazil that was formed in 2019 to empower, motivate and inspire women farmers and give them rightful visibility in an industry which is traditionally male dominated in Brazil.
Pact Coffee, one of the UK’s leading independent speciality coffee roasters, was founded in 2012 by Stephen Rapoport to bring the freshest speciality coffee directly to UK kitchens. Since then, it’s spent the decade championing sustainable farming practices, encouraging gender equity at source and paying farmers significantly more than the Fairtrade base price.
Will Corby, Pact Coffee’s director of coffee and social impact, said: “Removing the intermediaries in the supply chain and going directly to coffee farmers has allowed us to make a significant impact at source since day one, but this is typified through Cafeina.
“Every bean that we sell in the UK allows Cafeina to work with more women in Brazil and towards gender equity in an industry where they’re all too often ignored. I want to make it clear that this isn’t charity, because the coffee is genuinely some of the finest you’ll taste from Brazil.”
Once the Cafeina coffee is imported, Pact Coffee will roast it in its carbon-neutral roastery in Surrey and deliver it to Lexington offices days later.
Paul Turton, CEO of Pact Coffee, said: “I’m thrilled to work with Lexington on a partnership of this scale. Simply put, the more coffee we can get to UK offices, the more we can make a genuine difference abroad. While we thoroughly appreciate all our business-to-business relationships, this is a huge step for us”.
Jesse Bliss, Head of Partnerships at Lexington said: The cafeina blend is perfect for Lexington because our customers care about great tasting coffee, but they also care about making ethical choices that have a positive impact on the world. Cafeina gives us both of those things which is really exciting.”
Matt Wood, Managing Director of Lexington said: “All at Lexington are incredibly excited to announce this exclusive partnership with the amazing team at Pact. We have got to know the farmers, and we have been really impressed by the passion, skill, and dedication of this inspirational team of female coffee producers. The team at Pact are raising the bar in terms of coffee quality and social value. We have been blown away, and we can’t wait to introduce Pact to our clients and customers very soon."
