Cofix CEO Avi Katz plans to take on the coffee/café industry in Israel and he plans to implement a price reform no less radical than seen in Israel’s mobile phone market. With the opening of Cofix’s first branch in Tel Aviv, over 800 patrons exhibited a willingness to wait on line by 17:00 on the first day.

So what makes this new chain so special? Everything sells for 5 NIS. This includes the coffee, fruit juices, pastries, and sandwiches. Customers report the coffee tasted the same to them as the standard 12-15 NIS cup purchased elsewhere and ditto for all other items on the menu.

Katz insists that there is money to be made at the 5 NIS price and it is time that someone puts an end to the price gouging seen across the country, and he plans to be that guy. He admits that Israelis are not like Americans, who are accustomed to waiting on line for a deal. “Most Israelis will pay 15-18 NIS for a cup of coffee to avoid the line but this will change” he adds. Katz insists there is room for a profit in selling a basic no frills product without the extreme pricing that exists in coffee shops and cafes nationwide.

One patrol holding a coffee and a Danish told reporters “it tastes the same as all the others but now I can get it for 10 NIS instead of spending 50 NIS for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.”

Katz hopes to open 100 additional branches in the coming year as he sells franchise branches and he has set his goal of 300 branches nationwide after three years of operation.

YWN-ISRAEL contacted Cofix to determine if the store has a kashrus hashgacha. A response was not received at the time of this report. Efforts to contact the Tel Aviv Religious Council Kashrus Department were unsuccessful and no one answered the phone. The store does not appear on the Tel Aviv kashrus database.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)