Change Please uses 100% of its profits to train barista skills to people experiencing homelessness, which Love said is “as important as ever” amid the current cost-of-living crisis
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A Change Please store at Cardinal Place, Victoria, London | Photo credit: Change Please
UK social enterprise Change Please has appointed Ken Love as its new Managing Director.
Founded in 2015, Change Please currently operates 12 UK stores and has a strong wholesale channel, including retail distribution with UK supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, an e-commerce presence on Amazon and eBay and partnerships with coffee shops across the UK, France and the US.
The social enterprise uses 100% of profits and donations to train people experiencing homelessness to become baristas. Partnering with UK homeless charities, including Crisis, Centre Point and St Mungos, the business also provides its trainees with mental health therapy, housing support and employability training.
“I first encountered Change Please in 2019 and was simply blown away by what the business was doing. It was so obvious to me they were the outlier and disruptor trying to reshape a conversation around how and why you do business in the first place – it goes far beyond coffee. Now, as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite and the numbers of those experiencing, or at risk of, homelessness increases, our model is as important as ever,” Love told World Coffee Portal.
Love joined Change Please in August 2021 as Foodservice Controller, having previously served as a National Accounts Manager for Scottish coffee roaster Matthew Algie.
Change Please has not had a Managing Director since Julian Burnham stepped down from the role in September 2021, instead operating under the leadership of Founder and CEO Cemal Ezel.
Love said the reprisal of the role is a product of both a ‘leadership restructure’ following a period of sustained growth and a desire for further stability to sustain its recent development.
His priorities for the remainder of the current financial year include expanding Change Please’s social impact model outside of London, including employment and training programmes in Manchester and Glasgow.