The largely franchised coffee chain is seeking to scale its presence in Romania, Germany and the UAE this year as part of plans to double its footprint within the next two years
Tucano Coffee, Dubai Mall shopping centre, UAE | Photo credit: Tucano Coffee
Moldova’s Tucano Coffee is seeking to further scale its footprint in Europe and the Middle East following steady 2023 outlet and sales growth.
The Chișinău-based coffee chain opened eight new stores last year to reach 50 outlets – 42 of which are franchised. Six of the new sites are in Romania, the brand’s largest market with 36 outlets across 16 cities. Tucano Coffee also launched new stores in the MyZeil and Dubai Mall shopping centres in Germany and the UAE.
The alternative-lifestyle themed operator, which serves a range of single origin and small batch coffees, reported monthly sales exceeding €1.5m ($1.6m) for the first time in 2023, with like-for-like sales growing by more than 30%. Tucano’s total 2023 sales reached €17m ($18.4m).
The franchised coffee chain highlighted Romania, Germany and the UAE as key growth markets for 2024 and lists Belgium and the Republic of Ireland as upcoming markets on its website.
Tucano Coffee has previously outlined plans to reach 100 stores by the end of 2025.
Having opened its first store in Chișinău in 2011, Tucano Coffee opened its first international site in Bucharest, Romania, in March 2014 before entering the Middle East with a Dubai outlet a month later.
The coffee chain also has stores in Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, and previously operated franchised outlets in Russia, Cyprus and The Netherlands.