LOCALLY ROOTED LUXURY CULINARY BRAND COCO SAFAR TO OPEN IN NEW YORK!

12 August 2021, Cape Town. Today marks a major milestone for locally rooted luxury coffee, café, and bakery brand,
Coco Safar as it announces its first store to open in an iconic location in New York City.

Following the announcement late last year when Coco Safar was rated one of the best croissants in the world next to 3
of the most acclaimed bakeries in Paris, Tokyo and Melbourne - Coco Safar has just revealed the news that it will be
opening multiple stores in New York, with its first location officially secured in a prime position just off 5th Avenue on
Union Square as part of the first phase of its global expansion. Union Square is one of the most important hubs in Man-
hattan and home the famous farmer's market, amongst other attractions.

Designed to be a Pâtisserie & Bakery Lab (and innovation hub) with a luxury Sidewalk Café, Bakery and Espresso Bar,
it will be the first in a series of Coco Safar locations to open in New York over the coming years. Says Co-founder and
CEO Wilhelm Liebenberg, “We’ve been planning for this momentous day for many years. Opening in New York is one
of the most significant next steps for our business as it will provide an instant window to the world that will put a global
spotlight on the brand. After the brand’s official debut in the Big Apple, the world will be our oyster. We’re immensely
grateful to have been able to achieve this important milestone despite the devastation the global pandemic has had,
particularly on the restaurant and hospitality industries”.

Heading up Coco Safar’s New York Pâtisserie & Bakery Lab and the group’s culinary innovations globally in close col-
laboration with the Group’s founders, is renowned British-born New York based chef-operator, Rory Macdonald. Con-
sidered by industry insiders as a rare culinary talent amongst the world’s top 1%, Rory received in excess of a stagger -
ing 10 million views on the leading American food blog The Thrilllist. His extensive experience includes working for
top Spanish Michelin-star chef Salvador Gallego in Madrid and Michelin-star celebrity chef Jun Tanaka in London
amongst others before opening of his trend-setting Manhattan pâtisserie Chanson in 2017, which included a subter-
ranean late night Dessert Bar concept. He was also instrumental in several openings for the Michelin-starred Hakkasan
Group across the US and opening renowned Chinese restaurant Empress by Boon in San Francisco with the original ex-
ecutive chef of Hakkasan Group, Chef Ho Chee Boon. Coco Safar has been collaborating with Rory for more than 4
years before he finally made the move to join the Coco Safar Group full time as executive chef as the group embarks on
its global roll out strategy. Comments Rory, “I’m thrilled to be part of the Coco Safar team at such a pivotal moment in
time, and am immensely excited for the road ahead as the group embarks on its international rollout. I consider Coco
Safar as a disrupter in the luxury coffee, café, bakery, patisserie sector internationally.”.

Coco Safar’s imminent global expansion was always part of its business plan since the very inception of the brand 15
years ago in Montreal. This was followed by many years of research and development to perfect the Coco Safar
Group’s complex luxury food & beverage business model that consists of more than 7 micro businesses, including a
range of compostable specialty coffee & rooibos capsules, an all-day luxury café, a bakery & pâtisserie, lifestyle retail,
botanical micro-brewery and coffee roastery & lab, to name a few.

In the meantime, Coco Safar has been quietly racking up accolades, including being rated by Bloomberg in the US as
the world’s best coffee (capsules) and being featured in Forbes USA twice, Both the coffee and croissant accolades
were a first ever for a Cape Town based brand to achieve. Coco Safar will also be the first South African based F&B
brand to open in New York, no less in a sought-after prime location most can only dream of.

Since opening its first blueprint flagship café in Cape Town in 2016, the brand has continued to grow from strength to
strength, despite all the challenges that the water shortage and pandemic have brought about over the last 3 years. With
its Artem Galleria global flagship store in Sea Point today running queues almost all the time, the group has worked
around the clock behind the scenes to continue to bring innovative and inspiring new products to its loyal local cus-
tomers at stellar standards.

Set to open in at least 3 other key global markets after New York through major licensing deals in the not too distant fu -
ture (to be announced soon), it is ultimately the complexity and the experiential nature of the Coco Safar brand that
is appealing to sophisticated world class partners in the global luxury F&B space. It was renowned French magazine,
L’Officiel Paris after all who were quoted in a feature about Coco Safar as saying, “Best breakfast in town and without
any doubt the best coffee and café in the world.”.

It’s important to note that one doesn't develop brands of global relevance in just a year or two. The Coco Safar founders
and executive team have made incredible personal sacrifices over many years to reach this epic moment, with a relent-
less 24/7 commitment and a pursuit of excellence of a magnitude very few people can even comprehend. Looked at by
industry insiders as the “Hermès of coffee, bakery, pâtisserie and café culture”, Coco Safar is poised for international
success and plans to always pay homage to its part Cape Town roots, forever interwoven in the DNA of the brand.

For more info on Coco Safar, visit: cocosafar.com

(please note: this is a temporary website; the brand’s main site is currently under construction and ready for relaunch
in September 2021)

 ENDS

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, INTERVIEWS OR PRESS MATERIAL CONTACT:

Director: GlobalCommunications & Special Projects: Anina Malherbe-Lan

Email: amalherbelan@cocosafar.com | Mobile: 071 355 3783
OR
PR & Social Media Strategist: Megan Gotkin
Email: mgotkin@cocosafar.com | Mobile: 072 143 1525