Waitrose removes coffee tins showing slaves working on plantations

The illustrations appeared on the sides of tins sold by Italian coffee company Saquella 1856, and were spotted by Patriic Gayle, 56, as he browsed the aisles.Get more news about Coffee Tins Factory,you can vist our website!

The pictures show black slaves harvesting beans in Guatemala and in one image a white plantation manager watches a black mother carrying a child.

Patriic was horrified when he looked closer, and approached staff in the branch of the supermarket in the Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury, Camden, to complain.

His friend Annette Saunders was also appalled and the pair set about contacting Waitrose HQ to demand that the product was withdrawn – and within a week their demands were met.

Patriic said: ‘It looks like the kind of thing you see at Christmas but when I looked closer I was horrified.I have to take my hat off to Waitrose staff locally, who tried repeatedly to take the stock off the shelves.

‘We found it had been replaced the next day but all in all I think it was a good result in a week.’Patriic and Annette went to the shop repeatedly to voice their concerns, and also sent emails to the CEO of Waitrose about the images.

‘I asked them explicitly if they were going to take the stock off the shelves,’ Patriic said.‘When the local councillors got involved it seemed to step up a notch.

‘I’m a white, gay man, and Annette’s daughter is mixed-race, so it was particularly poignant for Annette.‘It was a bit of a no brainer. Anybody would object.’

Patriic, who lives in Camden, North London, praised staff at his local branch and said their response was ‘terrific.’He said: ‘The staff were not the problem, the problem is higher up and an unwillingness to take stock off the shop floor.