From coffee to carbon footprint: How this homegrown brand is making a difference

Founded in 2007 by Kim Thompson and Matt Toogood, UAE-based RAW Coffee Company started with an aim to meet a gap in the Middle East market for high quality, freshly roasted coffee. Over the years, the business has strengthened its commitment to fair trade practices to support coffee growers.

In an exclusive Q&A with IMAGES RetailME, Matt Toogood, Owner & CEO, RAW Coffee Company spilled the bean on what makes this homegrown brand special.

Playing the ‘connector’ role between coffee bean farmers & producers and end consumers, how do you ensure fairness at all levels?

We ensure fairness by maintaining strong direct trade relationships with our farmers, cutting out middlemen and guaranteeing fair prices that reflect the quality of their coffee. Our philosophy emphasises that everyone in the supply chain must add value, removing non-contributing players and enhancing opportunities for producers to add value. We help producers with pre-financing, allowing them to cover expenses like harvesting in advance. This ensures financial stability throughout the year, despite coffee being a seasonal product.

Since you are heavily into importing, how do you do balance your carbon footprint?

We maximise container usage by consolidating coffees from multiple producers, often up to 50, into one shipment. This reduces the number of shipments and emissions. We also provide strong forward forecasting to our producers, ensuring they produce the right amount of coffee. Locally, we use up-cycled materials, such as coffee bags made from recycled materials, and work with SMEs such as Bean and Beyond who collect our used coffee grinds to grow Oyster mushrooms. Further, to balance our carbon footprint, we invest in carbon offset projects, such as reforestation and renewable energy initiatives.

Staying with responsible retailing, would you like to highlight RAW’s ESG milestones over the past 12 months?

In the past year, we have successfully removed plastic from our business and are eagerly awaiting new recycling facilities in Dubai to further our sustainability efforts. Our ESG activities primarily focus on supporting producing farmers at origin. For instance, we have connected a commercial customer directly with a producer in Rwanda to ensure that the water used in coffee processing is treated properly, preventing harmful runoff. This initiative addresses a significant issue of pollution and contamination in many producing countries. Additionally, we treat municipal water before use, optimising our reverse osmosis system to discard only 18% of incoming water, compared to the usual 80%.

What are you ESG commitments for 2025?

By 2025, we aim to become a zero-waste business, achieving carbon neutrality and further enhancing our direct trade relationships to ensure even greater fairness and sustainability. We will also expand our community initiatives, providing more resources and support to our partner farmers, and increase our educational efforts to raise awareness about sustainable coffee consumption. Our long-term projects, such as assisting producers with biochar processing for organic fertilisers are part of our broader commitment to sustainability beyond yearly targets. We are also running trials with rural farmers on traditional bee hives to support the pollination of our coffee trees.

Its interesting that despite completing 17 years of operating RAW, you have stuck to one flagship outlet. Is expansion on the cards or do you plan to stick to a single store?

Our Al Quoz branch doubles up as a café and our roastery manufacturing facility. We focus on working directly with long-term customers to increase our presence, avoiding competition against them. This approach helps us to strengthen our B2B and B2C relationships while leveraging our single store to showcase our capabilities.