by Niyi Adekanye

Although Nescafe the well- known  global instant coffee has a handful of challengers in the Nigerian market, TopCafe may well be the latest challenger. hoping to get a little slice from Nescafe’s market.The challenger’s nice aroma makes a compelling appeal to coffee lovers, yet it may be a long way off in making a dent in the coffee king’s longstanding dominance of the market.

In recent years Nescafe has worked quite hard to adequately respond to the changing tastes of its consumers while maintaining its classic formula which won its global dominance. TopCafe is a creamy white coffee mix, according to its owner, Primera Foods Nigeria. It is made in Indonesia. Primera has been expanding the distribution reach of the brand to major urban centres such as Lagos, Abuja, Ogun state, among others. TopCafe is sold in a single use sachet ,which can also be bought in a pack of a hundred sachets.

But Nescafe also has a 3-In 1 sachet variant to counter wannabe challengers such as TopCafe, in that product segment- white coffee, cream and sugar. Nescafe and its parent, Nestle are also veterans of market battles.

Nescafe has several brand product variants in the market to appeal to various tastes. These include Nescafe Gold blend, Rich &Smooth Gold Blend, Classic Coffee, Gold blend Aita Rica, original coffee and Gold Blend Decaf- which mostly play in the semi-premium to premium market segment .Early this year, it introduced a new variant , the  Nescafe Malty 3in1. 

Nescafe’s competitors in the Nigerian market include -- Organo gourmet coffee, Cobizzco, Folgers, Cafelux cappuccino, MacCoffee, Stockwell and Liven Alkaline Coffee (Alliance in Motion.) Can TopCafe pose any real challenge to Nescafe? Not likely.