Northern Irish coffee business brought flavour to G8 Summit

Northern Irish roaster Pure Roast Coffee supplied its coffee pods to the recent G8 Summit of world leaders at Lough Erne Resort in Fermanagh.

The choice of Pure Roast Coffee, a UK leader in Easy to Serve Espresso coffee pods, reflected Prime Minister David Cameron's strong advocacy for small business and artisan involvement in the prestigious G8 event.

The Prime Minister's wish was to focus on high quality and local products to be enjoyed by the GB Summit participants.

Martin Symington, managing director of Pure Roast Coffee, commenting on the G8 business, said: "Being chosen to supply our products to the summit was a tremendous privilege for the company and a great endorsement of the quality of our coffee.

"This support for a smaller company will be of enormous benefit as we work to increase our business especially in markets outside Northern Ireland. Our strategic focus on growing exports has already produced significant business in developing markets and is line with the Government's to exports as a route to economic progress.

Pure Roast Coffee, established in 2009, now produces around 30 blends of easy serve pods to customers in the UK and increasingly in international markets.

Key customers include manufacturers such as Dualit, foodservice organisations including Emirates Airline in Dubai. Pure Roast Coffee pods are now supplied to the airline's international network of business lounges. The company has doubled turnover on a year-on-year basis. It recently secured a major contract to supply two million pods a year to one of the leading international restaurant chains.

The company, which employs seven people, has invested substantially in new technology processes including convection roasting and a state-of-the-art grinding system to enable it to meet the growing demand for its pods and ground coffee.

As well as coffee pods, Pure Roast Coffee provides a range of coffee beans, ground coffee and filter coffee including from Fair Trade suppliers.

Pure Roast Coffee has achieved British Retail Consortium (BRC) Grade A accreditation as part of its focus on faster growth outside Northern Ireland in both retail and contract catering sectors.