Union Hand-Roasted Coffee

Overview

Union Hand-Roasted Coffee was founded in 2001 by Jeremy Torz and Steven Macatonia after they had spent 1995–2000 supplying and then merging into The Seattle Coffee Company — the UK's first major coffee chain, which Starbucks acquired in 1998 and which the pair eventually left to start their own roastery. Working initially out of a refurbished shed at Macatonia's parents' Essex house with a roaster they drove to Vienna to buy, they pioneered Union Direct Trade, a sourcing model now spanning 40+ producer partners across 14 countries, and the company is today a B Corp with 75+ staff and £16m turnover.

Known for

• Founded 2001 by Jeremy Torz and Steven Macatonia — both alumni of Peet's Coffee in 1990s San Francisco
• Sold their predecessor coffee business into The Seattle Coffee Company in 1997 and stayed through Starbucks' 1998 acquisition before leaving in 2000
• Pioneer of Union Direct Trade (UDT) — minimum 25% above Fairtrade baseline, pre-financing, ≤50% of any producer's output
• First UK roaster to launch a single-origin Rwandan coffee (2003, with Comic Relief and the Maraba cooperative — still a partner today)
• Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development (2017 and 2022); Certified B Corporation

Why it matters

Union is the UK's missing link between Fairtrade and contemporary direct trade — Torz and Macatonia walked out of the Starbucks-era Seattle Coffee Company in 2000, codified what would become Union Direct Trade in their parents' Essex shed, and within two years had put a single-origin Rwandan coffee on supermarket shelves at a moment when British retail coffee was almost entirely commodity blends. Two Queen's Awards and a B Corp certification make it one of the most institutionally recognised specialty operations in the country.

Production

destoning

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head roaster

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color sorting

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roaster machine

Probat drum roaster (production scale)

filter equipment

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cupping frequency

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roastery location

Star Lane, East London

espresso equipment

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annual volume tonnes

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Recognitions

• Queen's Award for Enterprise — Sustainable Development (2017)
• Queen's Award for Enterprise — Sustainable Development (2022)
• Certified B Corporation

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Hand-Roasted_Coffee
• https://unionroasted.com/pages/about
• https://thechallengerproject.com/blog/2015/union-roasted
• https://finance.yahoo.com/news/behind-the-brand-union-hand-roasted-coffee-from-wooden-shed-to-speciality-success-060133682.html
• https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/union-hand-roasted-coffee/
• https://www.worldcoffeeportal.com/feature/keeping-your-coffee-in-good-hands/
• https://www.bestcoffee.guide/blogs/news/union-campus