LONDON — Italian family-owned premium coffee brand Lavazza has handed its UK consumer and trade PR brief to BCW, after a competitive pitch earlier this year.

The agency already runs Lavazza’s global communications from its Italy hub. The London team, led by Edward Green, managing director of consumer brand marketing, will have a line into the global account, reporting to UK marketing director Andrea Bello.

The brief, which BCW takes over from Focus PR, covers UK media relations, brand experience and amplification of all sports sponsorship, including Lavazza’s ongoing sponsorship of the Wimbledon tennis championship and its status as official coffee supplier to Arsenal and Liverpool football clubs.

Lavazza, which also owns Carte Noire in the UK and France, wants to reach a younger audience, gain greater share of the capsule market and improve perceptions of both brands, including among coffee shops, baristas and coffee buyers.

The BCW team has already started work, including the London media and influencer launch of Lavazza’s coffee table book, Coffee Sapiens, as part of chef Ferran Adrià’s Bullipedia, a planned 35-volume history of Western gastronomy (pictured).

Green told the Holmes Report: “We’ll be doing consumer brand work but also working with small businesses and on smart partnerships. It’s a wonderful opportunity, as Lavazza is in all the best places, and it’s a great brand to join our consumer roster.”