What started as a single coffee shop has grown into an award-winning social enterprise creating meaningful employment opportunities for South Africa’s Deaf community.
As I Love Coffee celebrates its 10-year anniversary, the Cape Town-based business is marking a decade of impact, innovation and inclusion, while expanding its footprint internationally.
Founded in 2016, I Love Coffee has become South Africa’s first coffee shop business to employ a majority Deaf workforce across its network of in-office cafés, with approximately 60% of employees identifying as Deaf.
Creating Opportunities Through Coffee
According to I Love Coffee, the business has generated more than 500,000 Deaf working hours over the past decade, equivalent to approximately 65 years of continuous employment.
The company currently employs and trains around 60 Deaf staff members and trainees while investing 25% of its gross profit back into job creation initiatives.
The milestone is particularly significant given the employment challenges facing the Deaf community.
According to the company, approximately 5% of South Africans are Deaf, representing around three million people, while an estimated 70% to 80% of Deaf adults remain unemployed.
From One Coffee Shop to a Social Enterprise
Co-founder Gary Hopkins says the business was founded with a clear purpose.
“What started as a single coffee shop in a gym grew from a vision to create exceptional coffee and meaningful opportunities for the Deaf community. While 500,000 Deaf working hours is a significant milestone, the real achievement is the lives behind that number — careers built, families supported and greater independence created. That’s the impact we set out to make.”
Over the years, I Love Coffee has evolved into a Level 1 B-BBEE company while building a reputation for both quality coffee and social impact.
Surviving Covid-19 and Finding New Opportunities
Like many hospitality businesses, I Love Coffee faced significant challenges during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Operations were forced to close during lockdown, placing years of growth at risk.
Rather than shutting down permanently, the company diversified its operations by launching a coffee roasting business and establishing a flagship café hub.
According to co-founder Mike Morritt-Smith, the crisis ultimately created new opportunities.
“After five years of building and scaling our cafés, the pandemic tested everything we had built. While COVID brought enormous uncertainty, it also pushed us to innovate. We pivoted into roasting, expanded into the UK, established a training academy and built the foundations for international growth. Looking back, one of our greatest challenges became one of our biggest opportunities.”
Expanding Into International Markets
The company’s international journey began in 2022 when it entered the UK market.
A year later, I Love Coffee partnered with WeWork to provide Deaf baristas at four co-working spaces across the United Kingdom.
Since then, the company has established a UK office and formed strategic partnerships aimed at supporting further international expansion.
Its Deaf baristas have also earned recognition through industry competitions, while training programmes continue to equip participants with valuable hospitality and customer service skills.
Inclusion as a Business Model
For Hopkins, inclusion has never been a corporate initiative or marketing exercise.
“We’ve never viewed inclusion as a programme or initiative. It’s simply part of who we are. Our cafés, roastery and training programmes have been built around the belief that talent exists everywhere, but opportunity does not. If we’ve achieved anything over the past 10 years, it’s showing that businesses can be both commercially successful and socially impactful.”
Celebrating 10 Years in Cape Town
To mark its anniversary, I Love Coffee is inviting customers to celebrate at its flagship Claremont café in Cape Town.
On 8 June 2026, customers can enjoy coffee for R10 as part of the company’s anniversary celebrations.
The business says it remains committed to its founding vision of creating sustainable employment opportunities for Deaf individuals while helping set a benchmark for diversity, equity and inclusion within the hospitality industry.
As it enters its second decade, I Love Coffee continues to prove that commercial success and social impact can go hand in hand.
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