Inbrief

A 41 per cent growth in ‘out-of-home’ sales to offices, restaurants, cafés and other businesses helped Cafédirect, the UK’s largest Fairtrade hot drinks company, increase overall sales by nine per cent to £21.6million ($43m) last year. By contrast, retail sales grew by two per cent. Cafédirect paid a ‘social return’ of £2.4m during the year to its coffee, tea and cocoa growers, mainly in the form of £1.7m in premiums to the market price.