We would like to share with you an insight into our own Coffee brand – Groundhouse, which we are delighted to call Fairtrade Certified.
Groundhouse is our own artisan coffee brand, serving small-batch, slow-roasted coffee in all its forms, from a smooth, velvety latte to a flavoursome flat white. Groundhouse was conceived to bring the excitement surrounding independent coffee culture into the workplace.
We’re proud that our coffee is sustainably grown and ethically sourced from the Capucas Coffee Cooperative (formerly COCAFELOL).
Capucas is located near San Pedro, in Honduras, the cooperative was founded in 2000 
by 30 small producers but is now made up of 366 producers.
The cooperative provides processing services, financing, training and technical assistance to its members.
The co-operative is very dynamic and always is looking at ways to implement community and development projects within a sustainable framework.
Some of the main initiatives are based on food security, environmental management and funding micro-enterprises. Among the main projects are biogas and bio-fuel generation from coffee waste, organic fertiliser and a women’s coffee roastery.
Coffee is grown under shade in an area that also contains orange, banana, pine and other kinds of trees. This means that organic coffees from the co-op
can also be certified as ‘Bird Friendly’, and there is diversity of produce. Some of these products are now finding export markets outside of Honduras.
Thanks to the Fairtrade premium the cooperative has invested in agricultural equipment and technical assistance to increase productivity and climate resilience. Additionally, Capucas have used the premium to hire travelling doctors for their remote communities and construct a library for the children. The financial safety net the premium creates has further enabled the coffee community to set up income diversification projects which include beekeeping and a composting laboratory – diversification of income and produce ensures household food security during ‘los meses flacos’, or ‘the thin months’, when there is little to no income from coffee
In addition to the Fairtrade Premium support we created an in-house giveback programme which directly invests in the Capucas communities. The current scheme will look to provide a tailored support programme in Honduras in-line with the needs of the community.
