Shifting Coffee,
Habits + Culture

We are brothers and first cousins - Daniel, Oliver and Lulu - who come from a tight-knit family of French Mauritian descent. Self-confessed coffee snobs, coffee has been a consistent thread through all our lives, and we have shared some of our most memorable moments together over a delicious flat white. Having been raised on farms, we also share a very deep love for Nature.

Believing in business as a force of good, we wanted to be part of the shift that takes society and us into the future: A better, kinder future for people + for the planet. This is the reason we started 4WKS.

In 2018 alone, 56 billion plastic and 
aluminium Nespresso®-compatible capsules
(also known as pods) landed up in landfill, 
where they will remain for 450-500 years.

We recognised the brilliance of Nespresso® and how it meets the need for convenience: to enjoy an espresso anywhere, anytime and at the push of a button — at home, on holiday, in the office. But single-use plastic and aluminium pods are wasteful, unsustainable, and killing the only home we have.

With millions of Nespresso® machines in use around the world, we wanted to use them for good — and to shift coffee, habits + culture, 4WKS at a time.

In 2014, Dan + Oli's dad (and Lulu's uncle) discovered a home-compostable pod made from bagasse (or sugarcane waste). While the idea unfortunately lay abandoned for a few years, Dan and Oli adopted it after finishing university, as they wanted to start a business that was based on purpose and not just profit. After a few pro-bono sessions with Lulu, cuzzie and brand strategist, we quickly became a tri-pod and 4WKS was born in January 2019.

We launched our home-compostable pod as a protoype, with the ambition to challenge two things: 1) waste and 2) the coffee inside pods (otherwise known as capsules). We asked ourselves: Why isn’t the coffee local, artisanal and freshly-roasted? Why is it so often considered second-rate, and is mostly imported, mass-produced, with an expiry date of up to 2 years? And, if we're going to have pod coffee, why can't we enjoy our favourite local roasters at the push of a button?

So we approached the real experts: 4 incredible local roasters and invited them to be a part of our 4WKS Collective — bringing them together to do better and to make great coffee available in a way that's kind, fuss-free + fresh.

In 2020, realising that our pod prototype needs additional refinement, we launched 4WKS Caps: a compostable capsule that delivers an exceptionally tasty, consistent shot and truly pays homage to the incredible coffee inside them.

At the same time, our Pod remains our Moonshot and, every single WK, we work hard to achieve our mission of replacing every single single-use plastic and aluminium capsule with a 4WKS Pod that does not only less harm but more good.

Real, human, perfectly imperfect and ever-evolving, we are committed to striving for excellence and for shifting coffee, culture + habits - 4WKS at a time.

Thank you for being on this journey, and shifting with us.

Here's to the brave ones, the kind ones, and to the Future.