Coffee Planet has opened the largest roasting plant in the country as the home-grown brand eyes further expansion.
Coffee Planet, which was set up in Dubai a decade ago with one coffee machine and a box of cups in an Adnoc petrol station, reported that it had invested Dh10 million in its new Jebel Ali factory.
That means that the family business has doubled the size of its roasting factory from 6,000 square feet to 14,000 square feet, with the capacity to roast up to 100 tonnes of coffee per month.
Coffee Planet, which started roasting its own coffee in Dubai in 2008, imports beans from 22 countries which are then roasted and analysed by the company’s coffee taster in Jebel Ali before being packed and distributed across the country and farther afield.
“This new roastery shows our invested commitment in supporting and diversifying the UAE’s economy,” said Robert Jones, the Coffee Planet managing director. “Our roastery expansion will not only cater to our growth as we expand regionally through our franchises, but also allows us to take a step further in globalising our local brand.”
And as the Nestlé-owned coffee machine maker Nespresso’s patents began to expire in 2012, Coffee Planet, like other coffee companies, has started producing its own capsules that fit into Nespresso machines.
The new facility - which is an expansion of Coffee Planet’s existing facility - produces 340 Nespresso-compatible capsules a minute and about 47 million capsules a year.
Coffee Planet’s expansion comes on the back of a boom in coffee establishments in the UAE, with an increasing number of home-grown roasteries – including Raw, Boon and Bio Bean –opening in Dubai.
In May a survey by the property broker CBRE found that the UAE had the highest number of coffee shops and food and beverage outlets per capita in the world.
However, it also found that this category also had the highest business failure rate in the world.
lbarnard@thenational.ae
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