Redemption Roasters was founded in 2016 after the Ministry of Justice approached co-founders Ted and Max about establishing a roastery inside a prison to train residents and reduce reoffending rates.
Redemption Roasters was founded in 2016 after the Ministry of Justice approached co-founders Ted and Max about establishing a roastery inside a prison to train residents and reduce reoffending rates. The first roaster was installed at HMYOI Aylesbury in 2017, and the first barista graduate, Talib, joined the café team on Lamb's Conduit Street in Bloomsbury at opening.
The mission has remained the same as the business has scaled: train people leaving prison with barista skills and employ them in the cafés. The roastery has since moved to HMP The Mount, where a Loring roaster now produces several tonnes of coffee each month.
Barista academies operate inside multiple prisons in partnership with Milton Keynes College, with hundreds of people having completed the programme. Redemption now has 12 shops across London including locations in Covent Garden, Kings Cross, Victoria, and Piccadilly, and sells coffee online with subscriptions.
The business is one of very few roasters in the UK where the production facility and social purpose are structurally integrated rather than added on.
