Wycliffe Sande on being a black founder and paying it forward

Entrepreneurs tend to start young. But perhaps not as young as Wycliffe Sande. The Blue Turaco founder began thinking about his career at just eight years old, when he lost his father. His mother’s mental health began to spiral: she became non-verbal for a year and was unable to work.

“If there was no food on the table, that was on me,” remembers Sande, who grew up in a fishing village in Uganda. He began collecting cow dung and picking coffee for money, alongside other jobs, while continuing to study at school. “I think in the UK you’d call it child labour, but in my situation it was called survival.”

Even in that survival mode, though, coffee piqued his interest. It formed the basis of what would eventually become Blue Turaco. “I don’t think it’s dramatic to say coffee saved my life. I have a very personal connection to it. A lot of things I do now are born out of my own curiosity about coffee as a child.”

Indeed, that curiosity was the driving force behind Sande building the first black African-owned coffee company to gain a UK supermarket listing – in a somewhat bumpy path to success. 

Sande lost his mother at 12, and went to live with an elderly relative. He then met a British volunteer who was working in local schools. They became friends, and the volunteer’s family helped Sande come to the UK to study law at the University of London. He then landed roles at Nestlé and Nando’s, and it was during the latter stint that Sande began making moves to launch Blue Turaco. He saved frantically and spent all his annual leave travelling to his home country, with a plan to source coffee from local farmers.

Doing so fairly was one of the founding principles of Blue Turaco, which sources directly from Ugandan coffee-growing communities. The brand pays 30% more than traditional coffee trade routes and provides two meals for Ugandan village schools for every pack sold.

Those pack sales are growing, too. Blue Turaco hopes to take its number of farmers from 100 to more than 250 by the end of this year’s season, backed by a rise in listings. Most recently, in August, it launched into Ocado, taking its total number of stockists to 500, including Waitrose and Co-op. Blue Turaco is now on track to hit a forecast retail sales value of £2m in 2025.

For Sande, though, the main motivation is not revenue. Rather, the company’s stated mission is to “shift the power dynamics in the coffee industry”.

“I don’t just want to sit in London and make loads of money,” he says. “When you have struggled so much through life, it’s natural to think: I’m earning money now, I’m just going to live. I have a different view.”

So he’s keen to do things differently, too. Part of that is about simply showing up on the farms. “I’m not there as someone dipping in because it’s my profession to buy coffee,” he explains. “ I am truly and genuinely working with farmers with a long-term perspective.

“Most of the time, any new policy is really just passed down to a farmer, saying: ‘This is what we think is good for you.’ There’s never been a true champion of smallholder farmers… who’s also building a brand.”

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As part of his ethos, Sande is obtaining direct feedback from farmers on what works and what doesn’t. He also realises most smallholder farmers grow a variety of crops, so he helps find a market for those, too. That could be through Blue Turaco – which buys corn from its farmers, for example – or an external provider.

“With that, you’ve created a secondary income,” says Sande. “Unlike most big coffee companies, we’re not just about coffee. It has to be the whole livelihood. And I think I’m able to do that mostly because I was born in that environment. Basically, I think: ‘This is what I would have loved from someone as a farmer.’”

Paying farmers 30% more than your standard brand is another key benefit. Much of that simply comes down to “not being greedy” on profits, says Sande, though it also comes from working directly with farmers. That means it can take out the “five middlemen who all want their cut”.

Sande has seen the benefits of that extra income with his own eyes. “It allows some of these farmers to dream,” he says. “We need to make sure coffee production pays, because that’s the only way we’re going to attract new blood.”

Reappraisal of robusta

Another of the big challenges facing Sande – and Ugandan farmers as a whole – is changing perceptions of robusta. “We are challenging what the coffee connoisseurs have always told you – that arabica is the only coffee worth drinking,” he says.

“Our offering of speciality robusta is really differentiated. About 70% of coffee grown in Uganda is robusta, meaning the more we talk about it and improve robusta processing techniques, the more livelihoods we can impact,” Sande points out.

Blue Turaco grows its robusta at a high altitude in “favourable growing conditions”, to create what it describes as a more nuanced flavour profile with fruity and floral notes. Plus, processing is carefully managed. The coffee berries are dried and processed in Uganda before going to the UK, where they are roasted and packaged, then sent to retailers and consumers.

“I feel compelled as someone who understands coffee to get people talking about robusta for what it is – an amazing coffee that’s rarely looked after or processed in the right way,” Sande sums up.

As Black History Month approaches its end, he is also keen to discuss one of Blue Turaco’s missions closer to home: opening doors for other black entrepreneurs.

“It was extremely difficult to get Blue Turaco off the ground,” he says. “UK retail, at a decision-making level, is a white male-dominated industry. It requires a great deal of network. You need to have gone to the right schools, the right places.

“Until recently, the only fmcg founder for young black people to look up to was Levi Roots. So, we want to pay it forward. Blue Turaco is not just about selling the product. It’s for the farmers, and it’s also a template for the black boy and girl born and raised in Croydon who have never bought a product made by someone like them. Success does not come in monetary value only. It’s also how many other people who look like me will be inspired.”