Free Report: Succesful story of the eco-initiative KeepCup

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Free Report: Succesful story of the eco-initiative KeepCup
by Ilsiya Khalikova \| 11-07-2021 06:35 0
KeepCup Story: How 10,000,000 Refillable Coffee Cups Were Sold KeepCup co-founder and managing director Abigail Forsyth has watched for 10 years as hundreds of thousands of disposable cups are thrown into the trash and sent to rot in landfills. Since its official launch in 2009, KeepCup has sold over 10 million units in over 65 countries and averted the plight of literally billions of plastic cups. How did this story begin? How did KeepCup achieve such global success? Prior to KeepCup's launch, Abigail and her brother, co-founder Jamie Forsyth, owned the cafe. After opening their first cafe together in 1998, for the next 12 years, the siblings worked together selling coffee in paper cups. Contrary to popular belief, disposable coffee cups are not recyclable. Despite being papery on the outside, most disposable coffee cups are actually lined with a thin layer of polyethylene on the inside, making them difficult to recycle. Numerous reports claim that it can take 30 to 50 years for a disposable cup to completely collapse. Not wanting to get involved in the pollution, Abigail and Jamie began looking for a solution. ”I started looking for reusable coffee cups to sell in our stores, but found that there was nothing suitable on the market, ”says Abigail. Finding a free niche in the market, the Forsytes set to work on creating a reusable cup that would be comfortable for both the barista and the client. Convenience was the guiding principle behind the design of the KeepCup. After spending countless hours at the espresso machine and talking to customers, Abigail found that while most people want to do the right thing, it is often too uncomfortable: “The biggest obstacle we found was that people said, 'I want to do right, but I don’t want to bother anyone. I don’t want to annoy the barista. I don’t want to annoy the café customers. I don’t want to embarrass someone standing in line behind me. So how can I be? " It doesn't matter if you have the best product in the world - if the experience the product provides is difficult or inconvenient for the customer, they won't respond to your offer. The next step was to make sure that KeepCup can be easily integrated into the client's daily life. To this end, Abigail has made sure that it's made of materials that make it easy to clean and remain dishwasher and microwave safe. This kind of over-concentration and obsession with developing a product that is ready for immediate use has been one of the key reasons behind the explosive growth in KeepCup's popularity. While in retrospect it might seem obvious that KeepCup was destined to be a huge success by being the right product, presented at the right time - right when people started drinking more coffee and the public became particularly concerned about preserving the environment. However, Abigail recalls a moment when she met with a certain manufacturer who told her that she was crazy trying to implement her idea. Perhaps one of the most impressive things about KeepCup is that the brand managed to keep growing despite offering only one product, and that was just "just a plastic cup." Over the past ten years, Abigail has transformed KeepCup into a truly global brand, all the while demonstrating that you don’t have to compromise your values and integrity to achieve that result. Today, KeepCup is a clear testament to how listening to customers, honesty in approach and messaging, and the drive for profit can be the keys to achieving explosive and sustainable business growth.

Dormant user Ilsiya Khalikova

5 Comments

Yuseon Mentor says :
Hi Ilsiya,

This is your mentor Yuseon:D

It's quite surprising that disposable coffee cups are not recyclable. I always thought that
as I recycle them to 'paper' products, I was able to participate in reusing the resources.
Still, it's good that Keep Cup seems to be doing its job!

Thanks for sharing:)

Posted 26-07-2021 00:51

Debbie Mentor says :
Dear Ilsiya,

This is your mentor Debbie :)
It??s really surprising that although we are trying to turn from plastic cups to paper cups, this effort is definitely not enough in improving the situation in terms of global warming, since recycling remains an issue still! In that sense, KeepCup did indeed get into the mind of consumers - I hope there are more brands targeting eco-aware consumers! :)

I appreciated reading your report. Keep up the work, Ilsiya!

Green Cheers,
Debbie
Posted 19-07-2021 00:46

Meena Pandey

Meena Pandey says :
Hi Khalikova,

Greetings from Nepal,

Thank you for sharing detail about Keep cup. I beleive that the concept of Keep cup is wonderful. They should be definitely promoted.
Keep writing your wonderful report.

I want to make you a kind reminder to fill this form which will take just a minute so that we can get connected in the coming days too.

Form link : http://forms.gle/G2Qa9iXjhDXxcWcr9

Yours,
Meena

GREEN CHEERS

Posted 17-07-2021 14:09

Dolma Diki Sherpa

Dolma Diki Sherpa says :
Greetings from Nepal

Thank you for sharing detail about Keep cup.
It is really good concept and those products should be promoted.

Regards
Dolma
Posted 12-07-2021 03:52