Entrepreneurs' Profile: Tseday Asrat

Tseday Asrat is the founder of Kaldi's Coffee - the biggest coffee chain in Ethiopia

Early Life, and Career

Tseday Asrat was born in 1975 to Asrat Gebre and Martha Abebe - a middle-class family of 4 kids. She went to Cathedral catholic school for elementary and Tikur Anbesa for high school education. After completing her high school education Tseday failed to pass a Campus entrance exam, giving her the push to focus on her passion for modeling.

At the age of 17, Tseday started modeling. In her career as a model, she has worked as a commercial model for Coca-Cola, Philips, and the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. Following her modeling career path, at the age of 24, Tseday opened a boutique store. And ran the store till the place she works on was taken for development program by Addis Ababa city Administration.

Kaldi's Coffee

On her trips to the US, accompanying her pilot husband, Tseday saw, and got amazed at the success of Starbucks and brought back the concept to her home, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2005, Tseday opened her first coffee chain on Edna Mall building naming it Kald's Coffee after the name of a shepherd who, according to Ethiopian folklore, has first identified coffee after watching the reaction of his goats who had been grazing coffee bush. After 16 years of operation Kaldi's Coffee has over 30 Coffee shops in Addis Abab, and Bishoftu, making it the biggest coffee chain in Ethiopia.

Other Ventures

As Tseday was expanding her coffee chain, she was faced with the problem of finding good quality coffee and dairy products on a consistent basis. To overcome the challenge she was facing, she founded Loni Agro-Industry PLC - a dairy products producing company, with a capital of 38 million birr, and a coffee roasting company with a capital of 3 million birr. From that on, she was able to maintain quality at Kaldi's Coffee.

In 2012, Tseday started Gusto Resturante - a Mediterranean dish serving restaurant, located around Botswana Embassy, Addis Ababa.

Other than the businesses she runs, Tseday creates educating YouTube content on parthood, family, work, and other topics concerning social life, and career.

All things said, let's finish with Tseday's saying that captures her spirit of entrepreneurship: "I am very ambitious; I stand firmly for what I believe in, and I am addicted to challenges. Challenges for me are flavors of life. In fact, I don't appreciate a smooth life."

@EthiopianBusinessDaily