Johannesburg - Many of us start our days with a hot cup of coffee, and even when we need to stay up to study or finish off that last-minute report, we will whip up a cup of one.
Despite loving good quality coffee, many of us don’t know the intricacies that go into producing what we end up consuming. But some people take that love to the next level.
Having always loved coffee, Mncedisi Thabiso Mnguni, founder and chief storyteller at Kofi Kulcha, got involved in the coffee industry in May 2019 to take his love for the drink to the next level.
“I began the process with the purchase of a VW Kombi, which I was busy converting into a mobile coffee bar before the Covid-19 pandemic struck early 2020. It then prompted me to halt the idea of completing the conversion of the Kombi and go ahead with launching my instant coffee line, which I initially planned to do in 2021,” Mnguni said.
As challenging as it proved to be, the coffee company was launched during the covid lockdown and started operating on October 1 2020. The black-owned coffee brand was born out of the desire to create a unique identity, proximity, relatability as well as greater economic value for a product that Mnguni enjoys and makes use of daily.
Kofi Kulcha supplies independent coffee shops and bed and breakfasts with their granular instant coffee products. Additionally, the company offers a coffee bar and barista training services for corporate partners and white labelling services for sachet-packaged instant coffee varieties to strategic corporate partners such as hotels and in-person conferencing companies.
“Our bottled granule coffee, which is our anchor product, is currently being roasted and processed in Poland, and the final lap of production, which is the packaging, is conducted in South Africa. Our roasted beans lines are roasted, processed and packaged in South Africa,” Mnguni explained.
An essential element of Kofi Kulcha's differentiation is the personalised experience it provides to its customers.
“An important part of positioning oneself as a business is having the ability to be honest about the character as well as the phase that your business is in," Mnguni said. For them to be able to set themselves apart from the larger and internationally established legacy business competitors, they have had to provide a personalised touch to their shopping experience.
“We also differentiate ourselves by the collaborations that we engage in with creatives across all disciplines of the arts, thus showing that we are not just a brand that cares only about maximising profit but we also care about making a net positive social impact and being an exemplary member in the fabric of society at large,” Mnguni said.
It was essential to establish the company as 100% black-owned because Mnguni believes that he has a personal ideological and social responsibility to keep his business black-owned to create a legacy institution of significant economic value, which can be emulated and eclipsed by black entrepreneurs who may aspire to make inroads and thrive within the same sector of the trade he is in.
“Essentially creating a blueprint which can potentially contribute to the growing ecosystem and information base of black entrepreneurs,” Mnguni said.
The entrepreneur explained that entrepreneurship is a huge learning curve that offers so much opportunity for growth but also many headaches.
“Amongst the challenges I’ve experienced was gathering enough capital to get the business started and operational. The manufacturing process for instant coffee is quite costly and full of risks - which could be quite frightening for any entrepreneur,” he said.
Mnguni used his entire savings, investment accounts and his provident fund when he left his previous job in 2019 to get the business up and running.
“Since then, the biggest obstacle, which many entrepreneurs face, is that our business has not been immune to the complexities of mastering distribution and scaling up of the business as there are so many moving parts to take into cognisance,” Mnguni said.
On the personal side, his biggest challenges have been time management as well as multitasking, as he dedicates so much time to new ideas and trying new approaches that can improve both him and Kofi Kulcha.
Paying it forward, their medium to long-term goal is to establish a charity organisation that will provide resources and support to anti-GBV and anti-femicide organisations, helping to eradicate the scourge of abuse against women and children, as well as providing educational bursaries at the tertiary level to previously disadvantaged students.
To find Kofi Kulcha products or enquire about their services, customers can visit their website at www.kofikulcha.co.za or reach out to them on social media at @KofiKulcha on Twitter and @KofiKulchaSA on Instagram and Facebook as well as their Whatsapp business-line on 079 441 9200.