Cafédirect Partners Ltd (CPL)

In February 2004, Cafédirect launched the largest ever ethical public share issue. This process allowed our producer partners, consumers, employees, founders, and other public investors to own shares in the company, to gain financial dividends, and to have a say in the governance of Cafédirect.

Cafédirect Producers Limited (CPL) is a producer co-operative that was created to pool the shares of farmers in order to maximise their influence by expressing a collective vote in the governance of Cafédirect.

Membership in CPL is optional and currently 28 of our 39 grower partners have signed up. Each member organisation has an equal influence in CPL regardless of the number of Cafédirect shares they own, giving equal say in all matters arising. In addition to the shares owned by participating members, CPL also holds 110,000 shares that were endowed to CPL to be owned collectively.

The members of the CPL elect trustees to exercise their collective voting rights. They also put forward two nominees who represent CPL on Cafédirect’s Board of Directors and attend Cafédirect’s AGM. The two current Directors are Raul del Aguila, from the COCLA coffee co-operative in Peru, and Raymond Kimaro, from the KNCU coffee co-operative in Tanzania.

On the right are pictures taken at a CPL meeting in Kampala, Uganda in February 2008.