Inside the rise of Xpresso Café’s R14 coffee model

Stephen Grootes speaks to Nicolene Elhadad, co founder of Xpresso Café, about how a simple idea to make quality coffee affordable grew into one of South Africa’s fastest growing coffee franchises.

Listen to the interview in the audio player below.

When Nicolene and Tomer Elhadad started Xpresso Café in 2016, their idea was simple: make good coffee affordable for everyone.

At the time, they noticed that many South Africans were being priced out of everyday treats like a cup of coffee. That idea turned into a business where everything on the menu has a fixed low price. 

In 2016, their first store opened in Durbanville, with everything priced at R10. 

Nearly a decade later, Xpresso Café has grown to over 80 stores across South Africa. Despite rising costs, prices have only increased twice, from R10 to R12, and now to R14.

Today, the business sells over 3 million items a month and supports more than 500 families.

Franchising has also become a key part of the Xpresso Café brand's growth, as the popularity of the brand grew.

Speaking to Stephen Grootes on The Money Show, Nicolene Elhadad, co-founder of Xpresso Café says the sheer volume of customers who pass through their stores makes it possible for them to sell items for just R14.

"It's actually the volumes of people who move through our stores. Today we have over 80 stores across South Africa, and each store averages between at least 500 to 1,000 customers a day."

- Nicolene Elhadad, co-founder - Xpresso Café

"We sell 3 millions items a month across South Africa. And I'm very proud about that because every store we have obviously employs people and that's our big reason behind starting Xpresso in the first place."

- Nicolene Elhadad, co-founder - Xpresso Café

"The quality is extremely important because we want the customer to come back. So yes, the pricing is really affordable, but we believe if the size of the product is also impressive. Every product we have is huge. It is not a small, high-tea item just because it's priced lower."

- Nicolene Elhadad, co-founder - Xpresso Café

Scroll to the top of the article to listen to the full interview.