Kenco is a brand of instant coffee, and roast & ground coffee distributed by Kraft Foods in the United Kingdom. Originally known as the Kenya Coffee Company, they started distributing coffee to Britain in 1923. Shortly after, they opened a coffee shop in Sloane Square and then changed their name to Kenco in 1962.
In 2008 the brand was relaunched with 75% of the beans for its instant range being sourced from Rainforest Alliance certified farms.
History
Kenco was founded in 1923 by a co-operative of retired Kenyan coffee growers who traded as “The Kenya Coffee Company Limited”. Soon, LC Gibbs and CS Baines began selling coffee from a shop in Vere Street, Mayfair. The shop sold roast and ground coffee locally but most of its sales were by mail order - selling coffee to country houses using advertisements in publications like Tatler, Country Life and The Times.
As demand increased, the company moved to number 30 Sloane Street, London, next door to a food merchants called John Gardiner. Gardiner ran a food wholesale business, restaurants and provided outdoor catering at events such as Wimbledon Tennis Championships.
After WW2, Tom Kelly, a Gardiner employee, persuaded the company to buy The Kenya Coffee Company. On completion of the deal, Tom Kelly was put in charge of the new business and he expanded the retail chain. As well as selling coffee by mail order and from the Sloane Street premises, Kelly diversified into catering and opened eleven coffee shops on locations as Wimbledon, King’s Road and Golders Green. These Kenya Coffee Company shops may well have been the first branded high street coffee shop in the UK. In the 1960s, the cafes were thriving, selling not only coffee but all sorts of cakes as well. Besides the coffee shop activity, Tom Kelly also acquired the rights to sell Gaggia machines, and so the company started to sell espresso machines to other coffee bars.
During the 1960s, the Kenyan Coffee Company changed its name into the Kenco Coffee company, to reflect the fact that the amount of coffee the company bought from Kenya was decreasing.
Before being owned by Kraft Foods, the brand was owned by General Foods and before that Premier Brands.[1]
Products
- FreshSeal: The perfect on the move, hot beverage solution
- Singles: freshly brewed, every time
- InCup: the quick and easy vending solution
- Traditional Vending: Branded loose ingredients for traditional systems
- Roast & Ground: For Espresso, Bulk Brew, Pour & Serve & Cafeteria systems
Kenco and the environment
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
Kenco follows DEFRA’s strategy. Doing so, Kenco tries to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle thier packaging and use less natural resources.
Packaging
Coffee is extremely susceptible to oxygen and moisture. The elements of heat, light, moisture and oxygen will cause coffee to deteriorate faster than it would naturally do otherwise. (Paul Basset: page 2, "storage") Instant coffee is brewed coffee that’s dehydrated, so it’s even more susceptible than normal coffee. Which means the packaging material has to protect the coffee very well. The polypropolene glass jars and the foil used in the refill pack, is not widely recycled in the UK and so in most cases ended up being throwed away. This is why Kenco introduced the refill pack with 97% less packaging weight per gram of coffee.
To stimulate consumers to reuse the glass jars and to recycle the refill pack, Kenco launched the waste less challenge.
Use of energy Kenco is into efficient energy use. 85% of the energy required for the coffee factory is self generated
Coffee source Kenco purchases 75% of their coffee beans for their freeze dried range from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and aiming to make it 100% by 2010.
References
