Deals
Abraaj-Held Coffee Chain Seeks Growth Out of Kenya Heartland
- Java House plotting acquisitions, franchising in new markets
- Abraaj’s Africa funds unaffected by parent company woes
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An Abraaj Holdings-owned chain of Kenyan coffee shops is shrugging off its parent’s funding woes to plot an expansion out of East Africa and possibly as far as China.
Java House, which has almost 60 outlets across Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, plans to boost that to as many as 200 over the next four years, Chief Executive Officer Paul Smith said in an interview in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. The company has set aside almost 1 billion shillings ($9.9 million) to pay for the acquisition of businesses and real estate, he said, and is targeting new markets such as Nigeria.