We are delighted to share this article written by pupils Alex and Chiara, who explain how they established their own ethical and sustainable coffee roasting business.
We’re Alex and Chiara, two Upper Sixth pupils in Exeter School. During Lower Sixth, we took part in the Young Entrepreneurs programme, which played a huge role in giving us the confidence and practical skills to turn an idea into a real business. The programme helped us understand what it actually takes to set up and run a company, from planning and branding to finance and customer relationships.
With a shared passion for specialty, single-origin coffee, Postcode Coffee Roasters started from a genuine curiosity about how coffee tastes, where it comes from, and the people behind it. What began as an interest quickly turned into a small student-run business built around quality, transparency, and care.
We roast coffee in small batches to order, which allows us to bring out the unique flavour of every bean while keeping our coffee as fresh as possible and reducing waste. We focus on single-origin, specialty coffees that are fully traceable from farm to cup, meaning we know where our coffee comes from and how it has been produced. Ethical sourcing is central to everything we do, and we want every bag we sell to reflect the work of the farmers as well as our own commitment to doing things properly.
We chose the name Postcode Coffee Roasters because a postcode represents the final stop in a coffee’s journey. From the farm where it’s grown, through processing, shipping, and roasting, your home is where the story ends. Every bag tells a story — of place, flavour, and the people involved — and we see ourselves as the final link in that chain before it reaches you.
Balancing sixth form studies alongside running Postcode Coffee Roasters hasn’t always been easy, but it’s been incredibly rewarding and has allowed us to apply what we’ve learned in a real-world setting.
We’ve recently launched Postcode Coffee Roasters online and now serve customers both locally around Devon and further afield. As a student-run business, we approach everything with curiosity, creativity, and a genuine love for honest, high-quality coffee. Our aim is simple: to make great coffee, tell meaningful stories, and connect people to where their coffee truly comes from.
