Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd
Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd, trading as Xpresso Café, is a South African takeaway coffee franchise founded on 1 October 2016 by married couple Nicolene and Tomer Elhadad (also referred to as “Clyde Elhadad” in at least one source — see conflict note below) in Durbanville, Cape Town. The chain’s founding premise was radical simplicity: every item on the menu — coffee, pastries, pies, sandwiches — sells at one flat price. That price was R10 at launch, increased to R12 in October 2021, and to R14 in October 2024. At launch, this was approximately one-third of what competitors like Vida e Caffè charged for a single cappuccino.
The company grew from one store to five within its first year, then introduced franchising as demand from prospective operators outpaced corporate capacity. By February 2025, the network stood at 65 stores selling over 50,000 cups daily. By April 2026, the footprint had reached 80+ stores across Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, Johannesburg, and Pretoria, processing over 3 million items per month. Each store reportedly services between 500 and 1,000 customers daily. The founders aim for 100 stores by 2027, with 20 new outlets planned for 2026 concentrated in the Gauteng market.
Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd [causes] Xpresso Cafe Business Model Nicolene Elhadad [relates] Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd Tomer Elhadad [relates] Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd
A critical strategic layer is vertical integration. The Elhadads founded Jackass Roastery some years before the stores expanded to manage bean supply, and more recently opened an own food factory in Cape Town to address quality inconsistency and geographic delivery constraints from third-party bakers. This internalisation of the supply chain reduces per-unit cost and enables more predictable quality across an expanding franchise network — directly protecting the unit economics that make the flat R14 price viable.
Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd [relates] Jackass Roastery Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd [relates] South African Coffee Market Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd [opposes] Vida e Caffe
The founders have serial entrepreneurial backgrounds: they started their first business 18 years before the BusinessTech article (March 2026), placing their entrepreneurial debut at approximately 2008, from a home garage. Nicolene’s self-described focus is brand development and opportunity identification; Tomer/Clyde’s is operations and business systems. The company is actively working on a “new business model” to be launched in the second half of 2026, the nature of which has not been disclosed publicly.
Nicolene Elhadad [defines] Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd Xpressocafe (Pty) Ltd [relates] South African Franchise Market
Conflict: BusinessTech (2026-03-23) and its image metadata refer to the co-founder as “Clyde Elhadad”, while How We Made It In Africa (2025-02-14) and EWN (2026-04-20) consistently use “Tomer Elhadad”. These may be different names for the same person (Tomer is a Hebrew given name; Clyde may be an adopted anglicised name). Unresolved — added to open questions.
Connections
- Nicolene Elhadad — co-founder, 2016–present, source: BusinessTech 2026-03-23
- Tomer Elhadad — co-founder (also reported as “Clyde Elhadad”), 2016–present, source: EWN 2026-04-20
- Jackass Roastery — supplies_coffee_beans, founded prior to 2025, source: BusinessTech 2026-03-23
- Xpresso Cafe Business Model — operates, source: multiple
- Vida e Caffe — competitor, source: entrepreneurhubsa.co.za
- South African Coffee Market — part-of, source: multiple