Coffee Express Undercuts Cofix With Coffee for NIS 4
Upstart plans to open 8 new branches by year end.
When it entered the café business, Cofix undercut the competition by selling all of its menu items for 5 shekels (about $1.45) each, including its coffee. But now a competitor claims that 5 shekels is too high.
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Coffee Express, which currently has two branches, one in Tel Aviv and the other in Ramat Gan, is selling all of its coffee blends other than the one with soy milk for 4 shekels a cup. The owner of the upstart claims Cofix is overcharging.
Cofix currently has 19 locations, mostly in the Tel Aviv area, but they also include a Jerusalem branch. According to its website it plans to expand considerably in the near future. The owner of Coffee Express, Tali Hamadi, said she intends to open eight additional branches by the end of the year.
“Cofix is selling coffee for five shekels and that’s expensive,” she claimed. “We will sell Lavazza coffee, which is of higher quality than what Cofix sells, at four shekels. You can make a profit on coffee at a price like that.” In addition to coffee, Coffee Express sells pasta, vegetable quiche and pizza slices for 5 shekels each.
Cofix owner Avi Katz, told TheMarker: “It’s true that you can also turn a profit by selling coffee at four shekels, but the question is which products subsidize which other products. I don’t intend at the moment to lower prices in response to [Coffee Express’] announcement. Will I go lower later on? It’s hard to know.”