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Taking advantage of the boom in the city café culture; Vinal Investments has under the Mugg & Bean franchise opened five outlets since November last year at capital investment in excess of $2, 5 million.

Vinal Investment, which is controlled by the Munyeza family, acquired the franchise for the specialised coffee shops from South Africa’s Famous Brands in May last year.

The first outlet was opened in the same year in November.

In an interview, Vinal Investment operations director Rody Makoni said more outlets are targeted for Harare, Bulawayo and Victoria Falls next year.

“Five shops have been opened in past 12 months after investing $2,5 million in the business.

“We are looking at opening more outlets next year to take advantages of opportunities in the market,” he said.

Mr Makoni also said the first coffee outlet that was opened performed well ahead of expectations in the last trailing 12 months.

“The second one was opened in Avondale last week and the Borrowdale news cafe opened over the weekend and started on a high note,” he said.

Under that same franchise, the Smooch, “ice cream shop” was opened last Thursday while the Ocean Basket will open before the end of the year.

Mugg & Bean, which has a Starbucks influence, was founded byBen Filmalter and his wife, Judi in the 1990s.

Apart from South Africa, the Mugg and Bean brand has a presence in Namibia and Botswana, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The Munyeza family’s investment in the Mugg & Bean franchise comes at a time when the Government is trying to promote inward investment by Zimbabweans in its effort to push the ZimAsset agenda.

Since 2009 Zimbabwe’s economy has grown albeit slowly and this investment is an indication of confidence by the Munyeza family in the Zimbabwe growth story.