Hey everyone. I have been asked to share this statement from the owners and founders of K&P
"Dear Soasians and Friends,
We are incredibly grateful and humbled by your support and thoughtful messages. Especially to those within SOAS who have stuck their neck out despite the potential consequences and backlash you may have faced during the celebrated time of SOAS ending outsourcing. We can never repay our gratitude towards you all, for sticking by us and making your voices heard. It has been a mental challenge of both frustration and sadness over these past two months, but we were uplifted by everybody’s sincere words of encouragement.
Sorry for our long silence, we have respectfully abided in confidentiality with our ongoing talks with SOAS. Unfortunately, we will not be operating as we were before, but we have come to a verbal arrangement with SOAS whereby we will act as suppliers and trainers to the newly built Paul Webley Wing Pod. All sales will go to SOAS together with in-house staff working at the pod and SOAS catering to produce food items for the new outlet. SOAS have agreed to promote our branding which gives us tremendous exposure as an independent business. This is an avenue we never expected to take, and it will be challenging but we will do our best to support SOAS.
It is very important that we do not lose focus on the bigger picture, which is through us and SOAS, small producers of Coffee, Tea and Cacao from South East Asia have a platform in London. Not just any platform but from a world leading academic institution which values and pioneers work in these very same regions . We have seen with our own eyes the effect on every cup sold and the benefits from those at the bottom of the supply chain who are often paid very little for such a labour intensive crop. A crop from regions where awareness of quality is progressive and we can share in the satisfaction that we are actively promoting these regions and producers amongst the wider global audience, with the purpose to help build a better future and alleviate many of the socio-economic problems faced.
We have made so many friends at SOAS, it feels strange to call you customers because you mean much more to us. It has been a privilege to call the Paul Webley Wing home over these past 12 months and we have enjoyed every single moment. Thankfully our SOAS journey has not stopped and we are grateful that Kape & Pan can continue in some capacity.
Our dream was to always one day open a café and now we are concentrating our efforts to make this happen. Over these past months we have searched and have identified options available which we hope to finalise in the early part of 2019.
We would like to thank everybody who signed this petition with a small token of our appreciation by giving you and a friend, complimentary drinks and brunch upon our opening. More information soon.
We would also like to announce we will be running a small funding round.
In celebration of our new crop from Beanspire, Thailand. We will be launching a limited edition Keep Cup, where the proceeds will go to funding of our new home.
Whether you decide to get a keep cup or not, the support you have shown for the early stages of our journey will never be forgotten.
Maraming Salamat po sa inyong lahat (thank you so much everybody),
David & Nigel "