Georgian Coffee House Brand 'Erti Kava' Plans $1M Coffee Factory and Training Center in Tbilisi

Georgian coffee house brand "Erti Kava" has announced plans to open a coffee processing training center and factory in Tbilisi.

The project, worth $1 million, will be located on 1,000 sq/m of space and offer a unique space for roasting and training of baristas.

Ksenia Markovskaya and Tanya Merzla, founders of the company, shared with Forbes Georgia that the "Erti Kavva" coffee house was founded in 2017 in Mestia. Since then, the brand has expanded to five branches in Mestia, Tbilisi, and Batumi, with a turnover of ₾3.5 million and 150,000 cups of coffee sold per year in each branch. According to the founders, "Erti Kava" achieves maximum sales per square meter in each facility, as per world standards.

The new facility will combine a coffee roasting plant with a staff training center, and offer specialty coffee and healthy breakfasts to customers. The menu will be refined by a chef from Ukraine in the coming years. The new enterprise will enable the production of 15-20 tons of coffee per month, with some supplied to the local market, and the rest exported.

Markovskaya notes that the training center will address the shortage of professional baristas in the company and the market, and the project will serve to develop the brand on both local and international scales. In 2023, quality, brand, and marketing will remain top priorities for the company.

The partners are currently in the process of finding an investor for the project, which they hope will eventually lead to the opening of ten facilities in the future.