Open a self-service coffee shop in Warsaw

Warsaw coffee shops: who buys coffee to go

Kavil started in Ukraine, and now Kavil coffee shops already operate in Warsaw too. If you want to open a coffee shop in Warsaw, know that a self-service coffee shop does not earn from people sitting at a table in the centre. Its customer is in a hurry: waiting for a bus, changing from the metro to a tram, or popping out of the office for five minutes.

Most of these people are where they change trains. Near Warszawa Centralna and Złote Tarasy, at the Centrum, Świętokrzyska and Ratusz-Arsenał metro stations, at the terminus by Młociny metro. People travelling to the centre from Białołęka, Bemowo, Ursynów or Targówek spend a good deal of time on the road, and a coffee bought on the way easily becomes a habit.

The second group works in offices. Near Rondo Daszyńskiego stand Warsaw Spire, Mennica Legacy Tower and Generation Park, with Varso Tower a little further on. In Służewiec, along Domaniewska and Wołoska streets, office buildings stand one next to another. Office workers drink coffee more than once a day, and the same person comes back to the location after lunch.

The third group studies. Uniwersytet Warszawski, Politechnika Warszawska, Szkoła Główna Handlowa, SGGW in Ursynów, Warszawski Uniwersytet Medyczny near Banacha: between classes, coffee is bought quickly and carried along. Just bear in mind that there are far fewer students in summer.

At weekends offices and universities empty out, but people go shopping at Złote Tarasy, Westfield Arkadia, Westfield Mokotów or Wola Park. A location in a shopping mall sells on Saturday too, when the office districts are quiet.

Which coffee shop formats we install in Warsaw

The most popular choice is an indoor coffee shop: from €4 427 for a turnkey set. It goes into a shopping mall, an office building, a pharmacy or a university. The Warsaw winter does not bother a location under a roof, because its customers are already inside.

An outdoor coffee shop works around the clock in any weather, has a vandal-proof body and needs no premises. It goes at a petrol station, next to a stop or outside a shop in a residential area, and the site is agreed with the owner of the land, for example the shop the kiosk will stand next to. We quote the price of an outdoor coffee shop on request.

There is also the cold-drink format: iced coffee, shakes and cold drinks for the summer. It is worth considering where it gets busy in summer, near a park or a shopping mall. The price is also on request.

It is easier to choose the format for a specific address: first we look at where people walk, then we decide what will fit there. If you want to sell something else, we will also build any vending machine turnkey, from ice cream to ready meals.

Where to put a coffee shop in Warsaw

The map above shows places in Warsaw that many people pass every day: thousands of stops, hundreds of Żabka shops, supermarkets, office buildings, post offices and universities. Click on your neighbourhood and see what is nearby. Below are the places where we start the search in Warsaw.

Have you already found a free corner in a shopping mall or a spot by a terminus? Send us the address, and we will calculate the revenue for that exact place free of charge. If you do not have an address yet, we search ourselves: we check footfall, negotiate with the landlord and show you several options. You pay for the search only after you sign the lease with the landlord and only if you like the site. No prepayment.

How much it costs to open a coffee shop in Warsaw

A turnkey indoor coffee shop costs from €4 427. The basic set includes a branded kiosk with LED lighting, a Saeco or Jetinno coffee machine, a terminal that accepts cards and phone payments, and telemetry. The final amount depends mainly on the coffee machine model, which we choose for the footfall at that site, the menu and your budget. A banknote and coin acceptor or your own kiosk design can be added separately. Outdoor and cold-drink coffee shops are priced on request.

Installation in Warsaw, as everywhere in Poland, costs €246 and is paid separately from the price of the coffee shop.

You pay in two parts: the prepayment after the contract is signed, the rest at installation. The coffee machine model, the set, the final amount and the deadlines go into the contract, which you see before you pay.

After that, the monthly costs are rent for the site, taxes and the bank fee for card payments. Rent in Warsaw depends on the address: in the centre and large shopping malls it is usually higher than next to a shop in a residential area. Royalties are 0, so you give nobody a percentage of your revenue.

If you plan several locations at once, say two in offices and one in a shopping mall, ask about wholesale terms: from 2 to 10 coffee shops.

What you need to open a coffee shop in Warsaw

You need a site and a lease with the landlord: a shopping mall, an office building or the shop the coffee shop will stand next to. You also need a bank account and a payment terminal. We help with both, step by step. We open coffee shops for people who have never had their own business, too.

No experience is needed. We train you from scratch, and from the day the contract is signed a personal manager supports you. Servicing takes about a quarter of an hour every two or three days: topping up ingredients and collecting the takings. It is easy to combine with your main job.

The order is as follows. You send a request, we calculate the revenue for your site and show you the coffee shop on Zoom. Then come the contract and the prepayment, and the countdown starts that day. We build the coffee shop in our workshop and search for a site at the same time. By day 30 we deliver it, install it, set it up, and you sell your first coffee.

How much Kavil partners earn

Kavil coffee shops already operate in Warsaw, but for now we only show figures from the cases of partners in Ukraine. These are results from December 2024, converted into euros at the NBU rate of 50.64 UAH/€ as of 7 October 2026. Every location’s result is different.

The case most similar to Warsaw shopping malls and transport hubs is Taras from Lviv. His chain of 3 locations stands in retail areas and busy corridors, and after 5 months of operation it brought over €1 770 of net profit per month. Vladyslav from Uman has 2 indoor locations with a steady flow of people and over €1 480 per month after 5 months. Bohdan from Odesa runs 1 indoor location near an entrance: 80 drinks a day and over €880 per month after 6 months.

Coffee prices, rent and taxes in Poland differ from those in Ukraine, so we do not carry the payback period over from these cases to Warsaw. We calculate it separately for your address, taking into account footfall, drink prices, the set and costs. This calculation is free.

Coffee franchise in Warsaw: what you get

You buy the equipment, and the business is yours. Kavil has 0 royalties, meaning no monthly percentage of sales. The equipment comes with a warranty, and its term is written into the contract. If you change your mind or the location doesn’t work out, we will buy back the equipment for 60% of its value; the buyback terms are written into the contract.

Everything is our own, with no middlemen. We roast our own coffee, pure arabica or a 50/50 blend, and our beans are 25% cheaper than competitors'. We build the coffee shops in our own workshop and buy Saeco and Jetinno coffee machines directly, with no dealer markup. The double-walled Kavil cup in passers-by’s hands advertises your location by itself.

You see sales and stock levels on your phone every day. If sales dip, we go through the figures together and plan to move a weak location. We also help with marketing for the location: ready-made layouts and posters, morning coffee promotions, Facebook ads.

In Warsaw you can take a managed franchise: our team runs the location, and you follow sales on your phone. We quote the price on request. The contracts are backed by Kavil co-founders Andrii Levko and Oleksandr Misin, who answer for every location with their own names. If you are also looking at other cities, we will find a site in Kraków and Wrocław as well.

FAQ: a self-service coffee shop in Warsaw