Nicolene Elhadad: How She Disrupted South Africa’s Coffee Market

In 2016, when a single cup of coffee in South Africa could cost as much as a full meal, a South African entrepreneur, Nicolene Elhadad and her husband, Tomer, saw a different path – to open a shop that sells a cup of coffee for 10 Rand, a third of what major coffee chains charged. Best still, they didn’t just sell coffee, they added pastries, sandwiches, and other food items.

What began as a quiet experiment in Cape Town with no restaurant experience and plenty of uncertainty has evolved into Xpresso Café, a thriving takeaway coffee chain with 65 stores nationwide, serving over 50,000 cups of coffee every day.

This is the story of how two everyday coffee lovers transformed a simple observation, which was, ‘coffee shouldn’t be a luxury,’ into a business model that disrupted an entire industry.

Nicolene Elhadad shares how she and Tomer bootstrapped their vision from the ground up, why they stuck with a flat R10 menu for five years, and how their mission to make daily indulgence affordable continues to drive them.

It all started with a moment of reflection, one that would eventually change the course of Nicolene and Tomer Elhadad’s lives.

“We noticed that the coffee shops did not attract everyone. It was because not everyone could afford the products they had available,” Nicolene said, recalling a coffee outing nearly a decade ago. “I found that sad because I see coffee as something you should be able to enjoy every day. It should not be something you spoil yourself with once a week.”

That small frustration brewed into a bold idea: a takeaway coffee shop where everything from coffee to pastries and sandwiches would cost just R10.

For two years, the couple wrestled with how to make such a model viable. “We wanted to make it simple and easy. Our vision was to offer a family of five people an experience where everyone can buy two things,” Nicolene explained. But turning that vision into a functioning business took conviction and a bit of negotiation.

“We argued about the price,” she said. “My husband insisted that every item on the menu cost R10, but I did not know if that would be sustainable.”

Still, the idea stuck. And in 2016, they opened the first Xpresso Café in Durbanville, Cape Town. With no fanfare, no ads, and zero prior experience in hospitality, they quietly stepped into uncharted territory.

“We had no experience in restaurants, coffee, or baking, and we had never worked with the public directly,” Nicolene admitted. “We did not have a rigid business plan. We focused on ensuring that the business can work from the till.”

That meant every sale had to cover the day’s expenses. Nothing more, nothing less.

The night before the launch, Nicolene was gripped with doubt. “I thought this would not work. Nobody will come to our new coffee shop.”

But people did come. And when they learned that everything on the menu cost just R10, they were stunned. “I had to repeat it a hundred times because people were so surprised,” Nicolene laughed.

The buzz spread fast, first through word of mouth, then across local press, radio, TV, and social media. The idea was too fresh to ignore.

From there, Xpresso Café grew steadily, expanding from one store to a national chain. It maintained its original price point for five years before raising it modestly to R12 in 2021 and to R14 in 2024. Despite these increases, the brand remains a low-cost outlier in South Africa’s coffee space.

“Everything in life does not have to be expensive. We do not make a lot of profit, but in life, giving has always been better than receiving,” Nicolene said.

Beyond the numbers, it’s the repeat customers that bring her joy. “We want to offer our customers flavourful coffee, delicious pastries, appetising sandwiches and decadent treats to enjoy any time of the day,” she said. “Seeing our customers being able to come back every day for their favourite snack and coffee is a dream come true.”

What Nicolene and Tomer built has become a movement, one that proves a business can thrive not just through profit margins, but through purpose.