CAREER SHIFT
Anabelle de Gersigny and Matt Wade, coffee roasters
FEATURE HOLLY REANEY
There is no better way to start the day than with a steaming cup of freshly brewed coffee. And no one knows that better than Matt Wade and Anabelle de Gersigny, who traded life in the big smoke to start their own coffee roastery in the Shropshire Hills on the Welsh Borders. It wasn’t always their dream, however.
‘Matt and Iboth studied fine art, and while he went into coffee roasting quite early in his career, after travelling to New Zealand, Iwent into curating and publishing –so coffee wasn’t on the cards for me,’ says Anabelle.
At its essence, Hundred House Coffee is built on passion, not just for coffee but also for the business and each other. ‘We wanted to spend our days together, not in separate offices, and we wanted to set up something that was ours and that reflected our creativity,’ explains Anabelle.
They’ve succeeded on all counts. Hundred House Coffee started by supplying local cafes and restaurants, but is now an award-winning coffee brand that sells to retailers, such as Selfridges, and has apopular subscription scheme for those who enjoy great coffee at home. The pair has recently expanded the roastery and also opened aco-working and entertaining space, named ‘Gather’ –part of their mission to use the profits of the coffee business to support local creative projects. It’s these art projects that Anabelle oversees,when she’s not working as creative director for the company, managing all its branding, communications, packaging designs and new artist commissions for the Freak &Unique series of flavoursome blended coffees. Having been priced out of London, the couple looked for a more rural setting for their budding business. ‘We’d been in cities for so long we were starting to crave the antithesis. Shropshire is aforgotten pocket of the UK with rolling green landscapes and rural villages,’ says Anabelle. ‘Working in this environment has been abrilliant incubator for anew business. We have the space to reflect and can live at our own pace.’ Trading the cramped and busy Tube for sprawling farms and atiny medieval town, the commute provides the perfect start to the day, too.
For Matt, the highlight of his work is sourcing t
