Bourbon Coffee, Rwanda’s chain coffee store has increased its profitability by 40 percent, almost eight months after the chain changed management.

In an interview with Business Times on Monday, Emmanuel Murekezi, Bourbon Coffee’s Operations Manager said their profits have been on an upward trend due to improved customer care service.

This includes launching regular customer care survey questionnaires to establish areas of improvement and customer needs.

"We have a new team since August last year with new thinking. Before there were so many missing items on the menu - when people are told things are missing they get disappointed and leave,” Murekezi, said.

With improved customer service, the chain coffee store  has been able to  rebound with a  turn over of at least Rwf 100 million a month from about Rwf65 million the previous years from the three main Bourbon Coffee outlets on the Rwandan market,

"We have put in place so many measures to improve customer service. We have challenged our staff to perform better – they are evaluated at the end of the day,” he added.

The manager also mentioned that the coffee chain store has also started changing its menu every three months in a bid to meet the needs of the wide range of customers.

To boost their operations, Bourbon Coffee recently acquired new equipment worth Rwf45 million including a blender and Espresso machine.

The coffee retail conglomerate is now weighing options of franchising Bourbon’s trademark to other private companies in DR Congo, Tanzania, Sweden and Canada.

Bourbon Coffee has seen significant expansion in the last four year
with three corporate shops in Rwanda and one unit in the US,
Washington D.C.

The company is planning to open more shops around Rwanda and two coffee shops in Boston and New York by the end of 2010.

The Coffee store started it operations in 2006 with first store at Union Trade Centre (UTC). After two years another one was opened up at MTN centre and Kigali International Airport.

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