Quiero Café: from small town to R$250 million

How did a small-town café become a R$250 million franchise?

Quiero Café was founded in 2015 by friends Matheus Fell and Luiz Felipe Wallauer Ferreira in Teutônia, a municipality of just over 34,000 people in Rio Grande do Sul. The idea came from Ferreira, then working as a lawyer, who struggled to find suitable cafés for business meetings. He brought in Fell, who had management experience running a bulk-cement transport company. Their initial investment was around R$120,000.

What made the business model work from the start?

The café outperformed projections in its very first week. Within six months, the founders were already structuring a franchise model. Their core philosophy: never sell a franchise to a passive investor. Every franchisee must be an owner-operator who lives and breathes the business.

How did the network grow so consistently?

Quiero Café entered franchising in 2017. Using a spiral growth strategy focused on training before expansion, the network opened 26 stores between 2018 and 2021. By 2023 it reached 60 units, and by 2025 it surpassed 80. Revenue quadrupled from R$54 million in 2021 to R$251.4 million in 2025. Notably, the company claims it has never permanently closed a single unit.

In 2025, 13 new stores opened — six of them by franchisees who already operated other units in the network. For 2026, at least nine of the 13 planned openings are expected to come from existing network members.

What is the managers' school and why does it matter?

In 2025, Quiero Café launched an in-person, seven-month managers' school. The programme trains future store operators from within the network, roughly 70% of the curriculum being hands-on. This internal pipeline means expansion is driven by people already aligned with the brand's culture, not outside hires.