Cafe business booms in Indonesia

Syali, who knows the owner of the franchise, and Rahan established their own cafe brand with an investment of 50 million rupiah (about Bt150,000). A cup of coffee at RoomOurs costs between 7,000 and 12,000 rupiah and is frequented by university students.

“We had to move the cafe twice. Now we are renovating our current place and hope to start afresh in two months,” Syali said.

Business consultant Aidil Akbar Madjid said the cafe business was very profitable, citing prices, Indonesia’s history with coffee and lifestyle as the three factors that made the business attractive. “People now tend to spend more time at cafes. It’s part of their lifestyle,” he said.

Pranoto Sunarto, Indonesian Coffee Exporters and Industry Association (AEKI) deputy chairman for the speciality coffee industry, said the cafe business had been booming over the past three years. “But there are only four or five coffee companies that own more than five branches,” he said, adding that about 260 cafes really focused on marketing coffee as their main product. Annual national coffee consumption now stands at 200,000 tonnes, including 10,000 to 20,000 tonnes coming from cafes; it is increasing by around 8 per cent every year, he said.

Irvan Helmi and Muhammad “Agam” Abgari, co-owners of local brand Anomali Coffee, said their coffee consumption had hit 3 tonnes a month from around 20 kilograms per month in 2007; when they opened their first store.

Anomali currently operates four stores in Jakarta and two in Bali and earns about 2 billion rupiah annually from its cafes and wholesale coffee bean business.

According to the duo, they established Anomali’s own coffee tasters in 2011 to maintain the quality. 

The cafe hype has also proved profitable for Singapore-headquartered Bengawan Solo Coffee, which generates up to 5 billion rupiah in revenue, with an annual increase of 20 per cent, according to Bengawan Solo general manager Renaldi.