Star Café seeks new market position

The home-grown company has just spent US$100,000 to acquire a new brand image, for its export coffee products which will enable it to compete favourably on a global scale with popular brands like Nescafe and Starbucks.

Njoroge said they company will start by selling its premium coffee brand in Kenya where the demand for branded instant coffee is on the rise.

"We have been selling instant coffee to repackaging companies in Kenya but now we will be exporting branded coffee," he said in an interview. In Kenya, Star Café's roasted coffee is sold to companies like Pan Café, and Gibson Coffee.

Besides Kenya, Europe, and China, the company is also eyeing large African markets like Nigeria and South Africa with big markets.

He said most global markets like Kenya currently do not have any high quality East African brands even with the presence of Tanzania's Tanica and Good African Coffee in the market.

"We are expanding our market and we want to position this as the East African brand in the market," he said. But the Kenyan market is highly competitive with foreign brands like Nestle controlling the market.