Pact Coffee secures first retail listing with UK supermarket chain Waitrose

Pact Coffee attained B Corp certification in August 2022 | Photo credit: Pact Coffee

UK specialty coffee roaster Pact Coffee has secured its first retail listing with premium UK supermarket chain Waitrose.  
 

From 16 October 2023, six packaged Pact Coffee products will be available from Waitrose’s 329 UK stores, including its best-selling Bourbon Cream Espresso blend which will be available in ground, wholebean and coffee pod form. 

The agreement also sees Pact Coffee introduce its Rwandan ‘Single Estate Microlot’ ground coffee to the UK for the first time, sourced directly from Kibirizi Washing Station – a collective of 1,130 farmers that each have less than a hectare of land, on average. 

“We couldn’t be more proud to be making Waitrose our grocery home, as we look to provide more consumers with the opportunity to enjoy the taste of some of the world's best specialty-grade coffee. We’re fully aligned with Waitrose in that we're constantly searching for the highest quality possible, whilst at the same time prioritising recognition and remuneration of the producer,” said Paul Turton, CEO, Pact Coffee. 

Pact Coffee, which promotes paying 76% above the 2022 Fairtrade base price, attained B Corp certification in August 2022, which it attributed to its ‘ethics-first’ approach and carbon-neutral UK roastery. 

The business has more than 55,000 active consumers signed up to its coffee subscription service. 

With increasing numbers of coffee consumers seeking to replicate the café experience at home, several coffee roasters have commenced or expanded their retail presence with UK supermarkets in recent months. 

Swedish coffee roaster Löfbergs made its UK retail debut in November 2022 with supermarket chain Tesco and online grocery platform Ocado. The business has since bolstered its retail range and, in June 2023, sold its Percol brand to India's Continental Coffee (CCL) for an undisclosed sum to better ‘concentrate its actions’ on developing its own brand coffee across the UK. 

Pact Coffee’s Waitrose listing comes just a week after fellow London coffee roaster Caravan announced it will begin selling its packaged coffee products in more than 250 Waitrose stores across the UK. Additionally, fresh from a £15m ($17.1m) investment round earlier this year, Grind entered a retail agreement with the John Lewis-owned supermarket chain which sees its packaged ground coffee and coffee pods available in more than 150 Waitrose stores.