What began as a single coffee shop with a powerful purpose has grown into an award-winning social enterprise that has now created more than 500,000 Deaf working hours across a decade of impact.
Western Cape, South Africa (07 June 2026) – A decade ago, a simple cup of coffee came with a much bigger idea: what if a business could serve exceptional coffee while creating meaningful opportunities for a community too often overlooked?
Ten years later, that idea has grown into something extraordinary. This week, I Love Coffee celebrates 10 years of impact and more than 500,000 Deaf working hours created along the way.
Good Things Guy first shared the story of I Love Coffee in May 2016, just weeks before the social enterprise officially opened its doors. Back then, it was a bold concept built around inclusion, employment and changing perceptions. Today, a decade later, we remain avid supporters, watching with pride as the business has grown from a single coffee shop into an award-winning enterprise creating opportunities both in South Africa and abroad.
Approximately 5% of South Africans are Deaf, equating to around three million people. Despite this, between 70% and 80% of Deaf adults remain unemployed, often facing significant social and economic barriers. Since launching in 2016, I Love Coffee has worked to change that reality by creating sustainable employment opportunities through its cafés, roastery and training programmes. Today, the business employs and trains around 60 Deaf staff members and trainees, operates as a Level 1 B-BBEE company and reinvests 25% of its gross profit into job creation initiatives.
“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,” explains Gary Hopkins, Co-Founder of I Love Coffee.
That impact becomes even more powerful when you put the numbers into perspective. Half a million Deaf working hours equate to more than 65 years of continuous employment. Behind every hour is a person gaining experience, building confidence, supporting their family and creating a future filled with possibilities.
Like many businesses, I Love Coffee faced one of its greatest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Forced to shut down operations in 2020, the enterprise suddenly found years of hard work under threat.
But rather than closing its doors permanently, the team found new ways forward, expanding into coffee roasting and establishing a flagship café hub that would become the foundation for future growth.
“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,” reflects Mike Morritt-Smith, Co-Founder of I Love Coffee.
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SPAR Celebrates 9 Wins at the 2026 Food & Home Awards!That spirit of innovation has carried the business far beyond South Africa’s borders. After entering the United Kingdom market in 2022, I Love Coffee was invited by WeWork to provide Deaf baristas at four co-working spaces starting in January 2023. Since then, the organisation has established a UK office and developed strategic partnerships to support further international growth. Along the way, its talented baristas have earned industry recognition, while its training programmes continue opening doors for Deaf individuals seeking meaningful careers.
“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,” shares Hopkins.
To celebrate the milestone and thank the community that has supported them throughout the journey, I Love Coffee is offering R10 coffees all day tomorrow (Monday, 8th of June), at its flagship store in Claremont, Cape Town.
Ten years after opening its doors, I Love Coffee has become far more than a place to grab a great cup of coffee. It has created careers, challenged perceptions and shown what becomes possible when opportunity is extended to those who have too often been excluded. As the business celebrates this remarkable milestone, the impact can be counted not only in hours worked but in futures changed.
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