Two strangers, one dosing funnel, and a shared obsession.
SA Coffee Gear wasn't started in a boardroom. It started in a workshop, a Facebook Marketplace chat, and more late nights than either of us will admit to.
It started with a student job.
Juan was a second-year engineering student when a part-time job at Henlo pulled him into the coffee industry, and it never let go. Before long he was programming the R itself, learning espresso machines from the inside out, elbow-deep in the gear most people only ever see polished on a counter.
Somewhere between the circuit boards and the crema, a conviction formed: South Africans deserve real access to serious coffee equipment, and honest advice to go with it.
A dosing funnel, of all things.
Devin was selling a Normcore dosing funnel on Facebook. Juan bought it. The handover took five minutes. The conversation didn't stop. One was an engineer who knew espresso machines from the inside; the other a chartered accountant with a head for building businesses properly. Both were the kind of coffee-obsessed that makes normal people nervous.
By the time the funnel changed hands, we both knew it: we had to do something together. SA Coffee Gear was born.
Hard work, meet business brain.
Juan
Engineer by training, machine-obsessed by nature. Juan built the front of the business: the sales, the marketing, the WhatsApp replies late into the night, and the machines delivered in person, set up on your counter, first shots pulled with you before he leaves. Ask our customers; it's in the reviews.
Devin
A qualified CA who runs the engine room: the systems, the numbers, the supplier relationships and the decisions that keep our prices honest and the business built to last. Every company needs one person who actually reads the fine print. Ours is Devin, and he enjoys it.
Great coffee shouldn't need an import licence.
For too long, serious espresso gear in South Africa meant grey imports, guesswork and nobody to call when something went wrong. We started SA Coffee Gear to change that: real machines, real advice, real support, from two people who use this gear every single day.
If we wouldn't put it on our own counter, we don't sell it. And one day, we'll have a floor where you can pull shots on every machine we sell. We're building toward it, one counter at a time.