Business
Andrew Rugasira and his Good African Coffee looking at expanding beyond Africa
Andrew Rugasira has worked for more than a decade to sell coffee in a way that will be more profitable to Africans, starting with a firm packaging roasted beans in Uganda and now working on plans to open cafes abroad.
The Ugandan entrepreneur’s goal resonates across a continent that has long sold commodities that are processed and consumed in industrialized nations, such as cocoa for chocolate or beans for espressos, while Africans get a fraction of the profits.
From his outlets in Kampala (Uganda), Rugasira wants to expand his Good African Coffee cafes to Washington DC, London, and other African capitals.
The idea is to sell cappuccinos and lattes with a ‘Made in Africa‘ story to draw customers who might otherwise go to America’s Starbucks or Britain’s Costa.
“When you add value you retain not just the financial value in country but you create jobs, businesses pay more taxes and that’s how you develop the economy,” he told reporters.
But Rugasira’s efforts to break into international markets, which began when he set up his firm in 2003, highlight the challenges facing African businesses as they seek to add more value and turn a local product into a global brand.
British supermarkets Tesco and Sainsbury’s, which initially bought his packaged coffee, have taken it off their shelves. And there is no guarantee his cafes will find it easy in markets with established international chains.
“Whether you can scale that up and be up against a behemoth like Starbucks, which really knows the coffee business and the retail business, that’s an incredibly tall order,” said Victoria Crandall, an analyst for Africa’s Ecobank.
Returning Value
While Brazil, Vietnam and Indonesia are the world’s top coffee exporters, coffee is big business in east Africa, which produces some of the world’s finest arabica and robusta beans.
