South Africa’s café market is competitive, but Nicolene and Clyde Elhadad saw a clear gap when they launched Xpresso Café in 2016: many coffee shops were either too expensive for everyday customers or too basic to create a memorable experience.
For Nicolene Elhadad, co-founder of Xpresso Café, the opportunity was to build a brand that could offer both affordability and quality.
“When we started Xpresso Café, we saw a major gap between affordability and experience,” says Elhadad. “At the time, many coffee shops felt either too expensive for the average South African or too basic to create a memorable experience. We believed people should not have to choose between quality and affordability.”
Since then, Xpresso Café has grown from one store into a national franchise network of more than 80 stores. The business now sells around 2,7 million items monthly across its stores, proving that a South African-born café brand can scale when its model is built around systems, consistency and customer understanding.
Creating a Cafe Experience for All South Africans
In the early days, Elhadad says the founders were not focused on building a large national footprint. The priority was to create a café experience that customers could return to regularly.
“In the beginning, we did not have this massive ‘80+ store vision’ mapped out perfectly,” she says. “We simply focused on creating a business people genuinely loved returning to. We listened carefully to customers. We paid attention to what worked operationally. We kept improving.”
That mindset became central to the brand’s growth. Xpresso Café was not built around trends or short-term hype. It was built around the way South Africans live, spend and connect.
“What made the biggest difference was that we built the business for real South Africans. Not for trends. Not for social media hype. We built it around how people actually live, spend, work and connect,” says Elhadad.
For small business owners, this is one of the strongest lessons from Xpresso’s journey. A scalable business does not always begin with a national vision. It often starts with solving one clear problem well.
Scaling the Business
As Xpresso Café grew, systems became one of the most important parts of the business.
“One of the biggest mistakes founders make is building a business that depends entirely on them personally to function,” she says. “Very early on, Clyde and I understood that if we wanted to scale, we needed systems before scale, not after.”
For Xpresso, this meant creating repeatable processes across recipes, store layouts, training, suppliers, customer experience, reporting, staff culture, store flow and speed of service.
Clyde focused on operational discipline, structure and systems, while Nicolene focused on brand, people, culture and customer connection.
“That combination helped us grow in a balanced way,” she says. “We also learned that systems are not only about operations. They are about protecting the brand experience as you scale.”
The Danger of Scaling Too Quickly
Growth can be exciting for founders, but Elhadad warns that expansion can quickly expose the weaknesses in a business.
“Most founders try to scale excitement before they scale structure,” she says. “A business can survive chaos with one store. It cannot survive chaos across multiple stores.”
According to Elhadad, many entrepreneurs focus on opening more locations before they fully understand their numbers, margins, systems, staffing model, customer experience and operational gaps.
For Xpresso, growth required emotional discipline as much as strategy. There were times when the business had to slow down and focus on training, operations and consistency rather than chasing new stores.
“Long-term brands are not built through hype. They are built through operational excellence repeated consistently over time,” says Elhadad.
Franchising as a Growth Model
Xpresso Café’s growth has been driven by franchising. For Elhadad, the model works because it allows the business to grow through partnership while creating ownership opportunities for entrepreneurs.
“Franchising allows growth to happen through partnership,” she says. “We love the model because it creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to become part of something bigger while still building their own future.”
However, she is clear that successful franchising is not simply about selling stores.
“The relationship between franchisor and franchisee is incredibly important. We see our franchisees as long-term partners, not simply customers,” she says.
The best Xpresso franchise owners are those who are willing to work hard, follow systems, build strong teams and care deeply about customer experience.
“This business is not for someone looking for passive success overnight. Hospitality is demanding. Retail is demanding. Leadership is demanding,” says Elhadad.
Building as a Married Founder Team
Part of Xpresso Café’s story is the working relationship between Nicolene and Clyde. Elhadad says building a business as a married couple can be rewarding, but it also comes with pressure.
“The truth is, business puts pressure on every weakness. It tests communication, patience, leadership and resilience constantly,” she says.
What has helped them is understanding and respecting their different strengths.
“Clyde is extremely disciplined operationally. He sees details, systems, risks and structure in a way that has been critical to our growth. I naturally focus more on people, vision, branding, customer connection and company culture,” she says.
Instead of competing in the same space, they learned to complement each other.
“We have also had to learn how to separate emotion from decision-making. When you are building at this scale, you cannot make decisions based only on feelings,” she says.
Maintaining Quality at Scale
With more than 80 stores, consistency has become one of the most important parts of the business. Elhadad says maintaining quality at scale requires systems, leadership and culture.
“At a smaller scale, founders can personally oversee almost everything. At a larger scale, you need systems, leadership structures and culture to carry the business forward,” she says.
For Xpresso, this includes strong operational systems, ongoing training, store inspections, clear standards, reliable suppliers, leadership accountability and simplicity in execution.
But systems alone are not enough. “If your staff do not believe in the brand, customers will feel it immediately,” says Elhadad. “We work hard to create a culture where people understand they are part of something bigger than just serving coffee. Every interaction matters. Every customer experience matters.”
Building Beyond the Founder
For entrepreneurs who want to build businesses that can run beyond them, Elhadad’s advice is direct.
“Stop building a business that only works when you are present,” she says. “Many entrepreneurs unknowingly become the system themselves. Every decision depends on them. Every problem depends on them. Every customer’s issue depends on them.”
She says scalable businesses need systems, leadership, documentation, accountability, training, financial discipline and operational structure.
“You also need to let go of control gradually and learn how to trust people,” she says. “Scalable businesses are built through teams, not individual heroics.”
Funding Growth Responsibly
Funding is one of the biggest hurdles for any growing business, but Elhadad says growth must be managed carefully.
“We learned very early that cash flow is one of the most important parts of survival,” she says. “Growth can destroy a business just as quickly as poor sales can if it is not managed properly.”
For Xpresso, the focus was on growing responsibly and strategically. The founders reinvested in the business and avoided expanding purely for appearances.
“Instead of focusing on appearing successful, we focused on building something sustainable,” says Elhadad. “There were many moments where we reinvested back into the business instead of taking the easy route personally.”
She says disciplined operations are key to protecting profitability. For Elhadad, the real measure of growth is not simply growing a franchise by opening more stores. It is building stores that can survive, perform and strengthen the brand over time.
“Anybody can open stores. The real challenge is building stores that survive, perform and strengthen the brand. That is where true business growth happens,” she says.
From one store to more than 80, Xpresso Café’s journey shows that scale is not built through hype. It is built through structure, consistency and a deep understanding of the customer.
