Formal Collaboration Agreement between The Afri-CAN Cafes and The Department of Coffee & Social Affairs, London.

The Afri-Can Charity and London based The Department of Coffee & Social Affairs announces the signing of a formal training agreement.

The Department of Coffee & Social Affairs is an independent London based specialist coffee shop and online retail business established in 2011. Over the last 3 years it has established nine outlets in Central London, including being appointed the in-house specialty coffee shop choice for the UK headquarters of Jones Lang Lasalle (‘JLL’). JLL is a global real estate services company employing over 48,000 worldwide.

From its first coffee shop on the iconic Leather Lane in East London the Company has grown to serve around 1,000,000 coffees per year.

The 5-year agreement will involve senior staff from the Department of Coffee & Social Affairs joining the Afri-CAN Café teams on location to train in all areas of service and marketing. They will also provide the Afri-CAN Charity Board with performance reviews and areas of focus on an annual basis contributing to the Afri- CAN Charity annual impact report

Department of Coffee CEO Matthew Gill said ‘Despite our rapid growth we have always maintained an emphasis on the quality of our coffee and providing a great service. There’s much we have learned over the last 3 years that would benefit the teams at The Afri-CAN Cafés and we are all really excited about formally being part of such a great charity!

Charles Kay, Afri-CAN Charity spokesman said ‘The transfer of skill sets from The Department of Coffee’s highly experienced team will prove to be of significant value to the Afri-CAN Café teams at crucial stages of their business development. Starting any business has real challenges and whilst learning from mistakes has its benefits there’s no doubt that a great deal of time in the development of each Afri-CAN Café can be saved with the right guidance’.