Egypt’s Home-grown Coffee Champion

 
Egyptian coffee bar chain Cilantro, noted for its colourful graphics and in-store extras, has not only managed to stay ahead of the big international players in its home market. It is fast becoming a multi-country brand in its own right, with branches in London, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Bruce Whitehall reports.
 

 
Like other developed Middle Eastern economies, Egypt has become an import ant target for Western foodservice brands, with branches of most of the leading international chains now evident on prime sites in the key cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Sharm-El-Sheikh. Changes over the past decade have stimulated a few Egyptian entrepreneurs to develop concepts but, as elsewhere in the region, expanding outside the national market is still not seen as a viable strategy. There is one exception however. Cilantro, a colourful coffee bar format which started in Cairo in 2000, is now at least twice the size of any of its direct competitors within Egypt, including big players like Starbucks, Costa or Second Cup.
 
Even more significant, the company is pursuing ambitious international expansion, with franchised branches open or planned in countries such as Kuwait and Jordan and a company-owned store now trading successfully in the centre of London, with more to follow this year.
 
The first Cilantro, opened by two local entrepreneurs in 2000, was a small (37 sq m) store in Zamalek, a cosmopolitan area of Cairo. It offered Italian coffees plus sandwiches and filled baguettes. “At that time, we had a few American chains like McDonald’s and traditional cooking places but very little else,” comments Nadine Beshir, the chain’s general manager. “It was the first Western-style cafe to open in Egypt; until then we were more of a tea culture and the coffee which most Egyptians knew was either Nescafé or Turkish-style.”
 
With orange and gold decor and a big communal table, the first unit quickly became a trendy hang-out for creative people, young businessmen and college students, and a second store was opened in front of the American University in Cairo. The third was in a quite different location – alongside a Carrefour hypermarket on a desert road outside of Cairo – but also did well.
 

 
| 3 June 2009 |