Coffee Fellows is a German coffeeshop chain founded in 1999 in Munich, Germany, by Kathrin Tewes and co-managed by her and her husband, Olympic Gold medalist Stefan Tewes who joined her in management in 2000. As of 2018, they have about 209 stores in Germany, most of them franchised. This makes Coffee Fellows the largest coffeeshop chain since they overtook Starbucks with its 159 stores.[2] They have over 240 stores in Europe and Asia.[3]
History
The idea of founding a coffee shop chain in Germany occurred to Kathrin Tewes after her stay in London and North America in the 1990s, where the concept of coffeeshops was already widespread. Along with her husband, she established Coffee Fellows based on the idea of offering a comfortable and agreeable environment for customers. The first store was opened on Leopoldstraße in 1999, which was followed by a second, albeit less successful location in Düsseldorf. However, another branch in Schützenstraße in Munich, which was also the company's first franchise location, developed more successfully.
In 2000, Kathrin's husband Stefan quit his job as a consultant for Roland Berger