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Baleni and Mamile had tried their hand at two businesses before embarking, nearly three years ago, on launching the Department of Coffee, the first coffee shop in Khayelitsha situated near the train station.
“We had a laundry and a car wash, but then we looked around and realised that a lot of people were running laundry and car-wash businesses. We needed to come up with something different,” says Baleni.
The aim was not only to have their own business, but also break down the wall between Khayelitsha and Cape Town – if the residents of Khayelitsha spend their money on expensive café lattes where they work in Cape Town, why not spend that money in Khayelitsha?
Coffee shops also create a social hub for the community where people can socialise, have meetings or just work on their laptops.
It was certainly a challenge to start. There is a reason me-too businesses are more popular; they have been tried and tested. Baleni says when they were doing their research, about 95% of people said it wouldn’t work.
“We had to prove them wrong,” says Baleni.
The aim was to target the 5% who did believe in the coffee shop and turn them into loyal customers returning every day for their caffeine fix. This was done through a combination of loyalty cards and really well-priced beverages.
While a cappuccino from a coffee shop in the city may set you back about R20, you won’t find a latte, cappuccino or macchiato priced above R10 at the Department of Coffee.
“We have been able to charge less because our rental is far lower here than in Cape Town. We also realised that if we wanted this to work, we would have to make it cheaper. We had to reduce our price to create a coffee culture, we had to educate people around quality coffee and we had to convince them to spend the money,” says Baleni, whose coffee shop only uses premium-brand Arabica-Italian coffee beans roasted locally for the Department of Coffee.
By developing a coffee culture in Khayelitsha, the team could face the risk of competition from new coffee shops following the me-too model, but Baleni sees this as an opportunity, not a threat.
“We want to see more coffee shops in Khayelitsha as we also supply the coffee beans. The more coffee shops, the greater the demand for quality coffee, the more beans we supply,” explains Baleni, who is also involved in upskilling the community through training people to become baristas.
In July, the business will reach the critical milestone of three years, or 1 001 days, which are the toughest years for any small business, with the majority failing before they reach their third birthday.
The Department of Coffee has proven those 95% of people wrong and has plans to open a second coffee shop four stations down in Philippi
