Considered design is what sets KeepCup apart from the competition, launching the company from category innovator to global market leader. When KeepCup first coined the phrase barista standard for its reusable coffee cups back in 2009 not many people knew what they meant.
 
Conceived in a Melbourne café, KeepCup designed a reusable cup that worked for both coffee drinkers and coffee makers – the baristas who have the challenging task of making high quality coffee accurately and at volume. Twelve years on, these design considerations continue to set KeepCup apart from its competitors when it comes to serving great coffee. The drafted cup design ensures the perfect pour and fits neatly under coffee machine group heads to keep extraction and crema intact. KeepCup sizes also replicate industry standard volumes for correct coffee-to-milk ratio. Meanwhile, the firm, easy to press-on lids ensure a no-spill speedy service.

The endorsement of baristas and the independent coffee scene was instrumental in driving the reuseable cup movement. Many early adopters remain KeepCup customers to this day and this customer journey reflects the journey of the business.
 
Starting with legendary independents like the amazing Prufrock Coffee Roasters, who successfully launched the first KeepCup Exchange programme. Prufrock customers could purchase a co-branded Prufrock KeepCup and swap it each time they returned to Prufrock for a takeaway. The KeepCup Exchange sped up service flow and encouraged customer loyalty, lowering barriers to reuse.         

Through the advocacy of KeepCup users, Caffè Nero has taken reuse to a larger stage. By putting KeepCup in every UK store and rewarding customers using reusable cups with additional loyalty card stamps, Caffè Nero saw 13% of its customers using reusables before the pandemic.
 
The lessons here are clear: inspire your customers and help them integrate reusables into their lives.

And then lifting the bar for cafés around the world, and going completely single-use free, is The Wildcat café in Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. Initially, The Wildcat charged an additional 10p for every takeaway coffee but ultimately decided this wasn’t enough to change behaviour. Following a successful six-day trial, The Wildcat made the decision to go completely single-use coffee cup free and haven’t looked back.
 
Reducing environmental impact in the reuse revolution is about even more than a beautiful product fit for purpose. Impact minimisation drives the design decisions across every aspect of KeepCup, from the materials used to manufacturing decisions and consideration of end-of-life solutions.