FiLLi Cafe, one of the UAE’s most recognisable homegrown tea brands, is leveraging AI-powered enterprise technology to manage its rapid international expansion, ensuring operational consistency and financial discipline across its growing global footprint. By adopting Oracle NetSuite’s cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, the brand has streamlined its financial operations and optimised inventory management from its Dubai origins to 13 countries.
From Local Gem to Global Brand
Founded in 2004 as a single café in Dubai, FiLLi Cafe has evolved into a global hospitality brand with 114 locations in countries including the USA, Canada, the UK, and Australia. As the company expanded, its legacy systems struggled to handle the operational complexities of a business with mixed models, including company-owned, franchise-owned, and franchise-operated outlets.
This rapid growth created challenges in standardisation, financial control, and real-time reporting, prompting the need for a scalable, unified platform.
Centralizing a Complex Operation
To build a solid foundation for future growth, FiLLi Cafe consolidated its operations onto Oracle NetSuite’s ERP system. The platform provided a single source of truth for its global business.
“The remarkable growth of our brand across multiple countries presented operational complexities,” said Ahmed Hasanain, Head of Information Technology at FiLLi Cafe. “NetSuite has helped us centralise our financial processes, automate key workflows, and gain real-time visibility into our operations. This has been instrumental in supporting our global expansion as it has enabled us to work productively with our franchisees and ensure we deliver the high-quality experience our customers expect.”
Before the implementation, leadership had significant blind spots in tracking performance across regions. NetSuite’s real-time reporting and KPI tracking allowed FiLLi Cafe to monitor not just outlet growth, but also profitability, cash flow, and sustainability. “It played a critical role in managing cash flow, the P&L, and the overall financial engine of the business,” Hasanain added.
Mastering a Perishable Inventory
Inventory management is a critical challenge in the food and beverage sector, where products are highly perishable. NetSuite’s inventory management tools enabled FiLLi Cafe to optimise stock levels, ensure product availability, and reduce waste across its diverse markets.
“In food and beverage, inventory is not just stock; it is cash sitting in warehouses or stores,” Hasanain explained. “Managing expiry dates, minimum stock levels, reorder points, warehouse stock, and in-transit inventory is crucial.”
The system provided clear visibility into inventory quantities and optimal reorder levels, helping the company streamline its procurement process, negotiate better pricing with vendors, and improve cost efficiency.
Brewing Future Growth with AI
Looking ahead, FiLLi Cafe plans to layer artificial intelligence on top of its ERP platform to accelerate growth and enhance decision-making.
“AI layered on top of NetSuite will be a game changer for us, especially in demand planning, supply chain forecasting, and field-level forecasting,” Hasanain said. “Having NetSuite as our core backend with AI-driven insights on top significantly enhances decision-making speed and accuracy.”
By pairing its signature tea blends with real-time operational intelligence, FiLLi Cafe is positioning itself for sustainable global expansion, maintaining control over the complex engine powering its growth.
About FiLLi Cafe
Founded in Dubai in 2004, FiLLi Cafe is a homegrown UAE tea brand that has grown from a single outlet into a global hospitality franchise. Today, the brand operates 114 locations across 13 countries, including the USA, Canada, the UK, Qatar, India, and Australia, offering its signature tea blends and cafe experience to a worldwide audience.
Source: Gulf Business
