London · United Kingdom

Union Hand-Roasted Coffee

Union Hand-Roasted Coffee is one of 14 London roasters tracked on day9, in England.

Since 2001 · Jeremy Torz, Steven Macatonia

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: true
roaster machine: Probat drum roaster (production scale)
roastery location: Star Lane, East London

Recognitions

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

Sources

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