Bacha Coffee and TWG Tea visionary Taha Bouqdib: ‘Luxury is in the details’

The first question I asked Taha Bouqdib was whether he prefers coffee or tea. After all, the visionary entrepreneur did build two successful companies around each of these two beverages.
“I like to drink both,” Bouqdib answered diplomatically. “It depends on the timing of the day. Sometimes I can start with a nice cup of tea but finish with a cup of coffee.”
TWG Tea and its sister brand Bacha Coffee have achieved admirable success. In Singapore, both brands have become so popular that you would be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t dined at one of their outlets or sampled their products. TWG Tea has expanded globally while Bacha Coffee has grown across Asia and the Middle East. The latter is now embarking on an aggressive expansion phase across Europe.
In August 2024, Bacha Coffee, which originated from Morocco, announced its plans to establish a flagship store on Champs-Elysees in Paris, slated to open at the end of the year. The Paris store is part of Bouqdib’s plan to open a Bacha Coffee outlet in all major capitals of the world by 2030.
Although Bacha Coffee’s roots date back to 1910, the present-day Bacha that coffee fiends are familiar with is a relaunch of a coffee house located in Marrakech’s Dar el Bacha palace.
Bouqdib, who is French-Moroccan and based in Singapore, was invited to a reopening of the palace museum in 2017. It was there that he became acquainted with the coffee brand. Familiar with what Bouqdib had done with TWG Tea, officials asked if he wanted to spearhead the relaunch of the coffee house. “To revive the brand, I knew it would be a big challenge,” Bouqdib admitted. Yet, he was captivated by its history and driven by intuition. “I don’t put too much thought into asking people whether something is a good idea. If I feel that it would be something right to do, I will just go for it.”
Bacha Coffee Marrakech opened in 2019 and expansion was already on Bouqdib’s mind. “I always think about scalability of a brand; if you’re going to do it, you have to make sure you can go global.”
As Bouqdib was already based in Singapore, it was only natural that the first international outpost of Bacha would be located in the Lion City. The Bacha Coffee outlet in ION Orchard opened that same year, followed by a second outlet in Marina Bay Sands in 2023. It now has coffee bars, boutiques and takeaway counters in Changi Airport, Raffles City, Takashimaya Department Store and more.
It also expanded rapidly across Asia into Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea. In the Middle East, there are retail stores in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha and Kuwait. Both TWG Tea and Bacha Coffee are managed by parent company V3 Gourmet, of which Bouqdib is president and CEO.
In 2021, Bouqdib and business partner Ron Sim, founder of OSIM and V3 Group, earmarked a S$136 million (US$103.77 million) investment to grow brands in the F&B and retail sector through V3 Gourmet. That investment and global push is now paying off – Bacha Coffee achieved profitability in 2023, with an annual revenue of S$95.5 million and profit of S$2.2 million after tax, the company said.
With the upcoming three-storey Paris flagship store – a €20 million (US$21.77 million; S$28.53 million) investment – Bouqdib wants to make a statement. “Paris is the city of fashion and tourists from all over come to walk on the Champs-Elysees,” he noted. While the famous shopping avenue fell into decline in recent decades, it is experiencing a transformative revamp, propelled by luxury giants such as LVMH. Bouqdib sees a parallel between the revival of Bacha and the revitalisation of the Champs-Elysees.
Paris will be Bacha’s “first step” in Europe, with plans to open in Italy and London. Concurrently, it aims to enter new markets in 2025 including Japan, Macau and Saudi Arabia. The goal is to have a presence in all the major capitals of the world, including the US, by 2030. “My dream is to be able to enjoy a cup of Bacha coffee whenever I travel to any major city in the world, in the same environment and with the same service and style. This is the target, and we will do it the right way.”
Stepping into a Bacha Coffee outlet is akin to entering another world. The Moroccan-inspired interiors showcase ornate tiles, vibrant colours and plush furniture, while rows of coffee tins line the walls, displaying a large variety of blends. Customers can choose from over 200 varieties of 100 per cent Arabica coffees from 35 countries around the world. It also serves a variety of sweet and savoury bakes, including its popular croissants with flavours such as kaya, coffee chocolate, pistachio and more.
At Bacha, coffee is brewed using a pour-over method, served in exquisite traditional pots with a side of Chantilly whipped cream. “In the beginning, everybody told me, Taha, you must use an espresso machine. This is what people like,” Bouqdib recalled. Yet he was determined to preserve the essence of the brand and how it prepares its coffee. “I said, if I do that, we will just be another brand. This is Bacha Coffee, it is another world.”
“In France, we call it a maison, which means house. Bacha is a coffee house,” Bouqdib continued.
Gifting is also a significant part of Bacha’s appeal. When Bouqdib first toyed with the idea of “putting a ribbon on a pack of coffee beans”, people thought he was crazy. “When I was working on the revival of the brand, I travelled everywhere to buy a great coffee gift. Everywhere I travelled, I could find amazing coffee to drink, I will not deny this. But to find a nice gift to bring home, it didn’t exist.”
For Bouqdib, “luxury is in the details”. “Customers can sense when a lot of care and attention has been put into a product,” he believes.
An obsession over consistency is also key, which Bouqdib chalks up to his time in the military in his youth. “You learn discipline, where everything is black and white – there’s no grey,” he explained. In the military, you push through regardless of how you feel: “You can’t wake up one day and say that you’re tired.”
Translating this to the business world, he emphasises that “your recipes must remain consistent, and the quality and service must be the same. You can’t have ups and downs.”
While Bacha stores and products exude a sense of luxury, Bouqdib emphasises that his target customer is, simply, everyone. “We don’t choose to target specific customers. For me, I don’t care. Having a nice mix of customers creates a nice ambience inside.”
Throughout his entrepreneurship journey, Bouqdib shares that the most important lesson he has learned is the ability to maintain “control over yourself.” One should respond to bad news with the same composure as good news. “When I was younger, any bad news felt like the world had stopped. Over time, I learned to approach challenges by asking, ‘How can we turn this problem into an opportunity?’” he reflected. 
It is a leader’s responsibility to reassure every department, in good times as well as bad, and to transform roadblocks into possibilities, Bouqdib added. 
He also stresses the importance of being proactive. “You can’t just sit in your office dreaming about expansion. You need to get out, assess the market meet people, and make it happen.”
Despite the scale of the business today, Bouqdib says he is still personally involved in the creation of new coffee blends, as well as the design of new products and concept stores. “This is why I have no holidays,” he laughed.  
As Bacha looks to further its footprint around the world, Bouqdib reiterates its commitment to quality, consistency and detail. “We don’t create a brand just for this time. We want to create something that is timeless. It’s for the next generation. It’s forever.”