Some years later when Richard moved to Addis Ababa with his family at the end of his own competitive career the two of them started working closely together as they set up an organisation to stage big mass-participation running events in Ethiopia. Their flagship Great Ethiopian Run International 10km road race became Africa’s biggest running event that today attracts over 40,000 participants.
In more recent years Richard found himself working for Haile in his coffee business and in countless conversations with people in and outside the coffee industry was bombarded with the same question: “Why don’t you produce a brand of Ethiopian coffee for runners who love coffee?”
Having been to Haile’s farm in south-western Ethiopia and become familiar with the operations inside Haile’s coffee business, Richard got together with two running friends in the UK to do precisely that.
