Business

From a failed sandwich shop to founding South Africa’s biggest coffee franchise

Kirsten Minnaar • 22 February 2025

In 2001, Rui Esteves and Brad Armitage founded vida e caffè after not being able to find the coffee products they wanted in South Africa.

With nearly 300 locations, vida e caffè is South Africa’s biggest coffee franchise today, but it all started with a failed sandwich business.

In the late 1990s, Rui Esteves and Brad Armitage spent some time in London where they were inspired by European coffee culture.

They also noticed a trend evolving in the restaurant and dining space – an increasing number of people were shifting towards healthier food, and juice bars were experiencing a boom in popularity.

However, this trend had not made its way to South Africa yet, and they realised there was a gap in the country’s dining market.

So, when they returned to South Africa, they started Fressh Bagel Bar in Durban, where they served smoothies, freshly baked bagels and coffee.

Unfortunately, this venture didn’t take off, and they ultimately sold the business.

According to Armitage, an important mistake they made was simply not being patient enough. If they had stuck it out, he said, they would have seen very different results.

“At the time, it was a great experience, it was a very swift learning curve for us,” Armitage explained at the 2011 Design Indaba.

From there, they decided to try their hand at being consultants and started doing several jobs for clients.

This includes developing a restaurant and hotel concept for the University of Pretoria’s High Performance Centre, the Rugby House Hotel & Koshuis restaurant.

However, it wasn’t long before they realised that this was not the career for them.

“We figured out that we don’t make good service providers in the sense that we don’t really like working for people,” Armitage said.

At the same time, they realised that there was still a gap in South Africa’s coffee market which they could fill.

So, with some more experience and patience under their belts, they revisited their restaurant idea.

Founding vida e caffè

According to Armitage, the idea for vida was born out of equal parts frustration and passion.

They were very passionate about coffee but were frustrated that they couldn’t get the product that they wanted in South Africa.

“You put those two together and you find yourself taking leaps,” Armitage said.

Although there was a coffee culture in South Africa at the time, it was very “traditional” and not one they believed in.

During the period, drip coffee was the norm in the country, and espresso-based drinks hadn’t yet taken off. In fact, Wimpy was the first restaurant to introduce espresso-based coffee drinks to South Africa during the early 2000s.

Another problem with coffee shops at the time, Esteves and Armitage felt, was that they lacked focus.

They served as restaurants which provided everything from breakfast foods to steaks, and the coffee was almost an afterthought.

A specialised shop which focussed specifically on coffee drinks was not something that really existed – which is exactly what they decided to create.

Portuguese for “life and coffee”, Esteves and Armitage designed the entire concept for vida e caffé themselves, drawing inspiration from street cafes in Portugal and combining it with African style.

They also decided that the store should focus heavily on espresso-based drinks.

In 2001, the first vida e caffé opened on Kloof Street in Cape Town and started expanding gradually soon after.

By the time they opened their third store in Cavendish Square in Cape Town, Grant Dutton joined the company as a 40% joint venture partner.

When the Cavendish branch opened to great success, Dutton, then managing director of vida e caffé, realised that the brand had big growth potential.

After helping the business grow from three stores to seven, Dutton and his investment partners bought vida from Esteves and Armitage in 2006.

At that point, Esteves and Armitage decided to trade coffee for beer, where they also saw a gap in the market.

Although the country had a large beer market, selling 2.6 billion litres of beer a year, it was completely dominated by South African Breweries, which had a 97% market share at the time, Esteves explained.

They believed that there was little difference in the look or taste of the beers available on the market.

Therefore, they set out to create premium, high-quality beers which pair well with food and look different to anything else that was being sold.

They started the international craft-brewing company &Union, which they opened underneath South Africa’s oldest church in Bree Street in Cape Town, where they served German Beer and sausages.

First vida e caffè in Kloof Street in Cape Town

Vida’s growth

After Esteves and Armitage left the business, vida continued to gain momentum inside and outside of South Africa, with its first international store opening in Ghana in 2013.

Current CEO Darren Levy joined the company in 2015, bringing a background in speciality retail, art, and a love of coffee to the business.

“I have always been captured emotionally by coffee culture,” he said in response to the original Kloof Street location being revamped.

“The opening of the Kloof Street store after an extensive revamp represents a milestone in our journey of the brand. This store and vida have been a part of the lives of so many of our staff and customers.”

“It was the birth of the high street coffee chain in South Africa, initiating a culture that is unrivalled worldwide, and one that our industry can be proud of.”

Under his leadership, the company has continued to grow remarkably, and vida is set to open its 300th store in South Africa on 3 March in Secunda.

In total, it now has over 320 stores on the African continent, making it the biggest coffee chain on the continent.

Today, vida is beloved by South Africans for its good coffee, its snacks and sandwiches, and its friendly employees.