Kenco

Kenco is a brand of instant coffee, and roast and ground coffee, distributed by Jacobs Douwe Egberts in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Originally known as the Kenya Coffee Company, they started distributing coffee to Britain in 1923. Shortly after, they opened a coffee shop in Sloane Square and then changed their name to Kenco in 1962.

In 2008 the brand was relaunched with 75% of the beans for its instant range being sourced from Rainforest Alliance certified farms. The company sources their coffee beans from Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Peru, Ethiopia, Vietnam and Indonesia.

History

Kenco was founded in 1923 by a co-operative of retired White Kenyan coffee growers who traded as “The Kenya Coffee Company Limited”. Soon, L.C. Gibbs and C.S. Baines began selling coffee from a shop in Vere Street, Mayfair. The shop sold roast and ground coffee locally but most of its sales were by mail order - selling coffee to country houses using advertisements in publications like Tatler, Country Life and The Times.