The story of Mozzo starts in Southampton 2005, with Grant Lang, a university project, a student loan and a passion for coffee, art and the environment. His aim was simple; to open a coffee house to become the community hub of coffee and art, using green energy and sustainable technologies.

The reality wasn’t so simple!

With the bank manager refusing to secure a loan to set up the coffee house it was on to plan B; use a student loan to buy an Indian TukTuk and have it converted into the world’s first solar and wind powered art covered coffee cart.

Located at various places throughout the centre of Southampton, the cart served 100% Arabica, Organic, Fairtrade coffee to the local community while showcasing the work of emerging artistic talent on the side of the cart.

The concept behind the art was to give an individual artist from Southampton’s creative community the opportunity to expose their artwork for a period of time. Mozzo Art has developed every year. Starting with art on the cart, Mozzo then started to create more platforms for artists to display their work. The next being Mozzo coffee bags and now it has grown to include coffee boxes, postcards, limited edition posters, loyalty cards and screen savers to become Mozzo Art on the Brand™.

The cart was also the start of Grant’s mission to raise money for community development projects, emerging artistic talent, research into green energy technologies and support the development of social entrepreneurs and socially driven enterprises. By investing 5 pence from every cup of Mozzo Coffee sold, it started the ball rolling for the Community2Community Fund™.

Demand for Mozzo coffee grew for it to be sold not just to local coffee drinkers but also to other venues in and around Hampshire. At this point Grant had never considered supplying his coffee to anyone other than the people that bought coffee from the cart. A few not so subtle hints from friends and family as to the path that was appearing started the next course of Mozzo.

A turning point came when Grant started working with Sarah Dodds in 2007. She gave him invaluable guidance, support and inspiration, enabling Mozzo Coffee to be born. Suddenly there was a focus with goals and a business plan…

A few years on and we now supply our magic Mozzo blend of 100% Fairtrade, Organic, Arabica coffee to the hospitality sector, focusing on independent cafes, restaurants, bars, hotels and work places. We’re seeing fantastic success and currently supplying our magic Mozzo beans to places as diverse as Pinewood Studios, International Airports, Hampshire County Council and the Royal Society of Arts.