LONDON, UK – Jeffrey Young, UK Coffee Week founder and CEO of World Coffee Portal, has talked about the challenges and opportunities arising from the current crisis – and warns businesses must adapt to survive. As the week-long fundraising initiative UK Coffee Week kicks off, Jeffrey Young is saying: “Covid is providing a number of challenges for our industry, in actual fact the impact is going to be absolutely catastrophic for some players. People that don’t adapt and don’t find their way into this new normal really won’t survive this moment.
“There is a lot of structural change within our cities, within our workplaces and also a lot of anxiety among consumers. And it requires a mindset to really move with the times and embrace a moment of new normal, new ways of working – taking new initiatives and a lot of innovation to thrive in this environment that is probably going to take a couple of years to get through for us as an industry.
“There’s a lot of opportunity with those who want to embrace this new era. We have a lot of growth in the home coffee market, we have a lot of growth in local independents, and we have this fundamental need for British consumers to embrace the local, and to embrace their local community.
“There’s a lot of opportunities for brands to build those bridges to communities … so we all move forward into a positive future together.”
Coffee lovers across the UK are being invited to support the coffee industry and the people who grow our favourite beans by taking part in UK Coffee Week from 19th to 25th October 2020.
For one week every year shops, restaurants, roasters and their customers come together to celebrate all things coffee while raising funds for Project Waterfall – a charity working to end the water crisis in coffee-growing communities across the world.
To date it has raised more than £750,000 and changed over 30,000 lives, bringing clean water, education and sanitation to many communities.
UK Coffee Week Founder Jeffrey Young said: “As we all know coffee shops and the whole hospitality industry have been hit hard in the past six months. As a result of this, demand for coffee beans has declined during the crisis – impacting our coffee-growing communities.
“UK Coffee Week is about celebrating our nation’s coffee industry as well as supporting our coffee-growing communities, and we feel that this is now more important than ever before.”
We used to be a nation of tea drinkers, but coffee culture has exploded across the UK in recent years. The industry has so far contributed £17.7 billion to the UK economy, and helps to support 210,325 jobs, according to market intelligence company Mintel.
We drink 95 million cups per day in the UK – an increase of 25 million over the last ten years, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research. Sustainability is key for industry experts with farmers living in poverty being one of the key issues. UK Coffee Week aims to tackle this and promises that 100% of money raised goes straight to Project Waterfall.
Coffee lovers can support UK Coffee Week (October 19th to 25th) by:
- Visiting their local shop, restaurant or roaster; in-person or online. Participating outlets might donate 10p for every coffee served or kg sold, run raffles or host events.
- Donating the price of your cup of coffee (£3 or your chosen amount) to Project Waterfall by texting ‘COFFEE’ to 70331.
- Visiting UK Coffee Week’s website and Insta where you can find competitions including the chance to win prizes from a year’s supply of coffee, to a coffee machine, capsule and cup bundle from brands such as CRU Kafe, Costa, Colonna Coffee, Caravan Coffee Roasters, Pact Coffee, Lyons Coffee, Best Coffee.
- Taking part in free nationwide coffee masterclasses each day during UK Coffee Week itself – learn how to make the best coffee at home or see behind the scenes at a roastery.
