Café Younes

OCTOBER 2018

www.endeavourmagazine.com

Cafe Younes A Well-Crafted Cup INSPIRED BY YOUR SUCCESS

WWW.CAFEYOUNES.COM // 00961 1 74 16 54

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presents

CAFE YOUNES

A WELL-CRAFTED CUP After more than 83 years in the business, the Younes’ know a thing or two about specialty coffee. We spoke with Faysal Younes about his family’s legacy and its evolving reach across the GCC. WRITTEN BY ALICE INSTONE-BREWER

CAFE YOUNES

Whether you enjoy the aesthetic or not, it cannot be

denied that a culture has evolved around coffee. True appreciation of the coffee beverage has become an entire experience, with importance placed on ideas of tradition, specialist knowledge, careful crafting of the drink, and an atmosphere that is at once both sophisticated and relaxed.

C

afé Younes have embraced this aesthetic and this culture; the largest home-grown Specialty Coffee shop in Lebanon, the 83year old family-owned business is now on its third generation

of owners, and the Younes family are keeping the sense of tradition

Okeili&co is the leading Family Business Advisory Firm in

strong. We spoke with Faysal Younes, Managing Partner of Café

the region. We have served more than thirty (30) business families around the GCC and the Middle East. We have tremendously contributed to the GCC Family Business Intellectual Capital during the last 15 years.

Younes, who along with his brothers makes up the latest generation

Our services touch all aspects of the family business ecosystem, identifying the areas where better processes, shareholder and family education, communication and alignment will lead to better business performance and a stronger family. We manage to achieve that only through bespoken efforts on ownership, family and corporate governance as well as proactive succession planning.

development. The company is based out of Beirut in Lebanon,

Preserving The Family Business Legacy For more information, write us at engage@okeili.com or call us at +9613160900

in this family legacy.

Founded in 1935, what began as a small coffee shop has now flourished into nine locations, with a further three currently in where it has been sourcing, buying and roasting premium Arabica coffee beans for over 83 years. All this time, the Younes family have cared for and fostered the company from its small beginnings to the expanding brand it is today, and this responsibility is held in high regard: “My ambition had always been to join Café Younes,” shares Faysal. “When I graduated from the university in the late ‘90s, Café Younes was a small business with only one site in Beirut.

My eldest brother Amin was managing it, and we had both decided that I should find a job to gain some corporate experience. This is when I joined Starbucks Coffee (Alshaya) as a Store Manager in 1999, with the objective of opening the first store in Lebanon.

Starbucks just had one store in the GCC and in the MENA region at that time.”

Faysal has spent 19 years gaining regional experience in the

service, the décor and design of the café itself, and, of course, there

corporate world – 13 years with Starbucks Coffee, where he

is the quality of the coffee. For those who don’t know, Arabica beans

climbed the ranks to become Regional Operations Manager for the

are favoured by baristas and coffee purists for the superior depth

GCC, two years as President of Food and Beverages for the vast

of flavour, and Café Younes sources varieties of these beans from

MENA retailer Azadea Group, and three years with Eathos, a leading

over 17 countries around the world to find the perfect flavours to

regional restaurant operating platform, as CEO. Throughout all of

prepare, both as single roasts and in creating their own blends.

this, his long-term goal didn’t change, and Faysal finally joined the

“The consumer knowledge and the appreciation for good

family business in June 2017. Today, the Specialty Coffee industry

quality coffee is constantly improving, leading to a higher demand

is growing at an incredible rate; whilst the fashion is going strong in

for freshly roasted coffees,” explains Faysal, citing this as the cause

many countries, the GCC/MENA region is one of its fastest growing

for the Specialty coffee shops’ rising popularity. Consumers want

markets. For Younes, this rise means the ongoing opportunity for

the reassurance of a quality beverage, with real love and care put

expansion: “All of our locations today are trading out of Lebanon.

into each cup. Café Younes provide this through their on-site micro-

And our new store pipeline is solid there. However, plans are

roasting facilities, which allow customers to witness their coffee

underway to take the brand internationally, starting with the GCC

being roasted. This coffee is then served with carefully prepared

market.” The first locations planned for the Café’s expansion are

food made with high-quality ingredients; it is details like these

Dubai, where Faysal is based, and Saudi Arabia. “We believe that

that gives the Café Younes brand the sense of craft and heartfelt

the company has all the merits needed to succeed outside of

authenticity that it sought after by coffee-lovers today. In Beirut,

its home country, and we remain opportunistic in looking at the

the popularity of this careful approach is fast out-stripping more

European market as well.”

corporate approaches:

There are several areas that need to be perfected in order to

“Beirut has managed to appeal to many major international

create a successful coffee shop experience: there’s the customer

coffee chains such as Starbucks, although only a few managed to

CAFE YOUNES sustain their businesses through the expense of home-grown and

started his career as a part-time barista and has now been with

independent coffee shops.”

the business for more than 11 years. We also offer access to key

The greatest challenges facing the Café is the volatility of

benefits and the opportunity to work flexible hours. Above all, Café

coffee prices, but the Younes family have fostered strong bonds

Younes has built a solid workplace culture over the years, which

with suppliers over the years that allow them to consistently

was key in sustaining our growth.”

source beans of appropriate quality. They also work closely with

“Throughout my years of corporate experience, I have found

other suppliers and third parties who have allowed them to build

that what truly distinguishes great leaders from good ones is not

their quality brand: “A clear example is our architect, Jad Ghostine,

IQ or technical skills, but EQ (Emotional Intelligence). Skills such

who is a huge fan of Café Younes. Jad who is behind the design of

as motivation, self-awareness, empathy, social-skills, among others

the last five outlets and is the champion of our new design model

are key components to enable any team to maximise their own

prototype. He considers himself as one of the Café Younes’ family

performance.”

members.”

Working closely with employees is a clear mark of the ‘family

The family-centric feeling of Café Younes’ leadership and their

business’ nature of how Café Younes operates – an important

relationship with their partners does not stop there, but filters

attitude that it is focused on keeping alive no matter what size

down to extend to each of their employees. The company currently

it grows to. “Today, we live in an era of unprecedented change

employs 80 people, with that number set to rise as their new

brought about by huge leaps in technology and globalization. As

locations open. The way they look after their staff is demonstrated

such, keeping the entrepreneurial spirit and hunger alive was key

by their low turnover, with an average managerial tenure rate of six

in sustaining Café Younes growth over many decades. As a family,

or seven years.

we enjoy unique strengths, which have yielded solid results and

“We offer career development opportunities. A clear example

helped deliver consistent growth across three generations. Our

is the current Operations Manager - Pascal Mantoufeh, who had

sound governance framework, our culture of clear and transparent

communication, and our ability to act quickly and decisively are all examples of our unique ‘family business’ differentiators.”

Where careful understanding of an industry and genuine passion collide, great things are possible, and Café Younes is flourishing where corporate coffee brands in Lebanon have fallen by the wayside. “We are simply obsessed with coffee,” enthuse Faysal, “Every step of the way.” This passion communicates to the customer, and to their coffee cup. As long as Younes’ heart stays in the right place, who’s to say how far this home-grown business can go? The 100-year brand legacy is now only a matter of time…

WORK WE DID WITH CAFEÉ YOUNES A journey with two people, two companies and a passion for serving the best coffee was what lead us to a partnership that we’re proud of.

After 11 years, 10 coffee shops and thousands of happy clients; Café Younes is a showcase brand. From fresh coffee roast to your cup every detail given from layout design to execution nothing was overseen in their operation, we congratulate them on their accomplishments and wish them many more successes.