When I first came to Kenya in 2002, the place to get a good cup of joe, and chill was Java House in Adams Arcade, off Ngong Road. Meeting point of the expat community and the trendy Kenyans, Java House cut-and-pasted the ingredients that made Starbucks Coffee famous and took advantage of the fact that Kenya is a producer of coffee and tea. Since its first restaurant opened in 1999, Java House has remained a pioneer and market leader, with currently 18 restaurants, branded packaged coffee and loads of merchandise, culminating sales to $11.8M last year. Amazing enterprise success!
Well that is great news to Emerging Capital Partners (ECP), a pan-African private equity company that recently acquired a stake in Nairobi’s Java House coffee house chain. But is that good news for those who want Java House to remain that relaxed semi-formal place where to meet people, read a book, work on the laptop while drinking good coffee or brunching on a nice grilled chicken sandwich? For ECP, the investment means expansion within Nairobi, in other parts of Kenya and in the rest of East Africa- resulting in a multitude of new outlets to open very soon, so as to get quick returns on a formula based restaurant model. And so, like Starbucks, Java is slowly losing its uniqueness to enter reality of mass retail…
Upside: job creation, democratisation of coffee house, Java brings business to shops around its restaurants. Downsize: Not good news for the nostalgic early days aficionados who think that small is beautiful…
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