Coffee News Roundup

Coffee News Roundup: Week Ending April 1st

Fionn Pooler

Apr 1, 2022 — 14 min read

An espresso cups sits on a table beside a folded newspaper. Via Unsplash

It might be April 1st (or 2nd if you’re reading the newsletter) but you can rest assured that all the stories in this Roundup are 100% true (mostly because April Fool’s Day is the absolute worst). Daily Coffee News masochistically went through some of the achingly bad coffee-based “jokes” that were posted throughout the day, if you want to subject yourself to that sort of thing.

Anyway, on to the real news.

Starbucks Pays Just £5m UK Corporation Tax On £95m Gross Profit - via the Guardian

Starbucks has always looked at UK corporate tax as more of a suggestion—or perhaps a challenge. In 2012 it was revealed that the company had paid just £8.6 million in tax on £3 billion in sales since 1998, leading to calls for an inquiry from MPs (surprising update: that never happened).

This year, after reporting £95 million in gross profit (on sales of £328 million), the company’s UK division then paid “administrative expenses” of £78 million—including £26.5 million in “royalty payments”—and ended up with taxable profits of just £13.3 million, hence the £5.4 million in taxes.

Paul Monaghan, the chief executive of the Fair Tax Foundation, commented: “Starbucks’ main UK subsidiary maintained its tradition of paying little corporation tax in the UK, and this was once again down to the payment of hefty royalty and licensing fees to entities further up the corporate group.”

The Guardian also noted, “Separate accounts show that Starbucks’ UK-based European business paid just $13m in tax last year, while paying the coffee giant’s parent company in Seattle a $164m dividend.”

Read the full story here.

Ireland Passes 20-Cent Disposable Cup Fee, Seeks Countrywide Eradication - via Daily Coffee News

Stopping the use of disposable cups is back on the agenda, after a pause during the early stages of the pandemic when reusables were shunned by many cafes.

A couple of weeks ago there was news of Starbucks unveiling “new plans to eliminate single-use cups” while not really doing any such thing (the plan is more about encouraging consumers to change their habits than outright elimination).

Perhaps to show them how it’s done, Ireland is going to simply start charging a fee for every disposable cup used, as part of a larger plan to tackle waste in the country. Beginning later this year, the Irish government will levy a 20 cent charge on all drinks sold in single-use cups, and will use the money raised to fund environmental protection and circular economy projects.

“Ultimately, the ambition is to make Ireland the first country in the world to eradicate disposable coffee cups,” the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications said in a news release. The plan follows the lead of the plastic bag charge that has reduced usage by 90% in Ireland since 2002.

In Scotland, meanwhile, the government announced new plans to introduce a similar disposable cup charge, although such plans are, well, in the planning stages.

Read the full story here.

Go Fund Bean Is Providing Free Meals To Boston Coffee Professionals During Expo - via Sprudge

Next week is Expo, the Specialty Coffee Association’s biggest US-based event featuring the 2022 US Coffee Championships, taking place in Boston.

For Bostonian baristas it means a busier time than usual as attendees from across the country look to explore the city’s coffee scene. Go Fund Bean, however, is on hand to provide free meals to tired coffee professionals with their latest initiative, Feeding Boston.

Thanks to a donation from Oatly, Go Fund Bean will be providing 50 meals to Boston-based coffee workers to help get them through what is bound to be a busy weekend. Sign-up ends tomorrow, April 3rd, so if for some amazing reason you’re a Boston-based coffee worker and you’re reading this, head here to get the details.

Feeding Boston is just the latest of a string of worker-focused initiatives started by Go Fund Bean, with programs including direct grants, mentorships, and even yoga. More of this sort of thing, please.

Read the full story here.

A person sitting on a park bench reads a newspaper. via Wikimedia Commons

More Headlines

Brazil’s Top Coffee Exporter Sees Record Shipments in 2022

Anacafé And ACE Launch Second Edition Of One Of A Kind Guatemala Auction

Kenyan Coffee Farmers Seek Direct Link To Embassies For Better Earnings

La Marzocco’s Single-Group Leva X Machine Launches for the Home

The Week in Coffee Unionizing

Another busy week in the world of coffee organizing. Here’s what happened:

Colectivo Coffee ownership finally recognized the union after the National Labor Relations Board denied their request to have the election reviewed. “We have decided not to continue our legal appeal and will commence to prepare to bargain in good faith with the union,” the company said. The NLRB’s decision makes Colectivo the largest unionized coffee chain in the country, as Starbucks stores are organizing separately, not chainwide.
The Starbucks Reserve Roastery in New York voted to unionize—the first store in the city, tenth nationwide, and a big deal as one of the company’s expensive flagship locations.
A union drive at a Starbucks in Calgary, Canada, failed this week after opposition both from the company and from Alberta’s anti-union ruling party.
Workers at Black Coffee Roasting in Missoula, Montana, have filed for a union election in April. They say their issues were ignored until they organized, and they are looking for a living wage as well as benefits and better working conditions—ownership, meanwhile, “would prefer the company be able to address employees’ needs internally.”

Is Coffee Good For You?

Coffee could be used to alleviate some of the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adolescents and adults, according to a new study from Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Spain.

A systemic review of animal studies concluded that “a prescribed consumption of caffeine can increase attention and retention capacity in adolescents and adults suffering from this psychiatric disorder.”

However, the researchers also point out that “caffeine can be a therapeutic tool for this type of symptom, but the results for other characteristic symptoms of ADHD, such as hyperactivity and impulsivity, are not clear.”