Co-operative coffee with Café Madre

Member of the El Bombo coffee co-operative in the region of Hila, Columbia

Have you ever stopped to think about how your favourite cup of coffee is produced? One Greenwich entrepreneur was so inspired by her visit to a women's coffee cooperative in Latin America that it launched a new business. As part of Co-op Fortnight 2025, Alice King founder of Café Madre talks to GCDA Learning about her incredible journey.

Alice outside the award-winning Village Greengrocers in Charlton

"I've been fortunate enough to spend alot of time travelling in Latin America. I speak Spanish, and whilst I was there, I visited a female-run coffee plantation. With coffee you can either join the race to the bottom with poor working conditions and damage to the environment, or you can go for these amazing community initiatives that bring with them things like adult education, classes for children and healthcare. Women are responsible for 70-80%  percent of agricultural work globally but they only receive about 20% of the profit. One of the most effective things you can do for the betterment of society in the development space is pay women for the work that they do. When you pay women in particular, you see things like girls staying in school for longer and children eating more.”  

When Alice returned from her travels, she couldn't forget what she'd learned and she started thinking about creating a business sourcing and selling coffee from women's cooperatives. Café Madre (which translates roughly as Mother Coffee) was launched in April 2025 with the help of a £1300 enterprise support grant, funded by Greenwich Council in partnership with GCDA and Good Food in Greenwich.

"My first two coffees were from Nicaragua and Bolivia. I know every detail right down to the location, the name of the cooperative, and the particular initiatives they’re involved with.  All that detail is included on the label so you can see exactly where the coffee has come from, what variety of bean it is and the altitude it was grown at. You also learn how each sale benefits the women who grow it.”

Women's coffee co-operatives help support the whole community

"I was thrilled to be awarded the grant funding which enabled me to get off the ground. I was able to import my first few kilos of coffee and get my domain name and website hosting sorted. The money also enabled me to pay for packaging and public liability insurance. I had some fantastic business mentoring from the CEO of GCDA Claire Pritchard, (who teaches GCDA Learning’s Business start-up course). She was just so excited by what I was doing, and so supportive of the idea and the ethos of my business. It was really encouraging."

Café Madre launched on April 19th this year at The Village Green Grocers in Charlton, which has twice been awarded Best of Royal Greenwich High Street Retailer of the Year. Alice’s coffee was an immediate hit. She sold 75% of her stock by the end of the first day. Encouraged by the positive response over the last few months, she already has plans to expand her range and find more local stockists. She is also producing mini packs of coffee so that customers can try different blends without spending too much money.

Alice now plans to get stocked in more outlets and hopes to bring out a low-caff coffee too. We wish her all the best with her business and can't wait to see what she does next!

Join Alice at our business networking event on Tuesday 22nd July from 6-8pm at Woolwich Front Room. Tickets cost £5 with a free drink from the bar. For details and bookings please click here.