December 2, 2011
After Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts,
Australia’s premium coffee company Di Bella Coffee is queuing up to enter
India’s $441 million (Rs2,270 crore) cafe chain business that has established
retailers like Cafe Coffee Day, Costa Coffee and Barista Lavazza.
Di Bella is likely to open as many as six
outlets in Mumbai by January 2012, which will be followed by expansion in Delhi
and Hyderabad. Di Bella Coffee’s top officials visited Mumbai this week to
narrow down on locations for stores across malls and high streets.
Founded in 2002 in Brisbane, the company runs
over 1,242 wholesale and retail outlets in Australia, New Zealand and China,
and India will be its next aggressive international foray, Rahul Leekha,
general manager - operations, Di Bella Coffee India, said.
He declined to comment on investments made in
India, but said the coffee chain business in India is growing by 40%.
The Indian entity, Di Bella Coffee India, has
been set up under licence agreement by Sachin Sabharwal who is part of Di Bella
coffee business in Australia along with another Indian director whose identity
is not disclosed. Apart from running cafes, the company is also looking at
selling coffees online and supplying coffee to five-star hotels.
While the Seattle-headquartered Starbucks that
has partnered with Tata Coffee for sourcing and retail in India continues to
hunt locations and may open its first outlet anytime in early 2012, Di Bella
will be India’s first premium international coffee chain offering rich blends,
luxury teas and other beverage along with quality food.
If things go as per plan, Di Bella could open
50 outlets in India in the next three years, Leekha said. The largest cafe
chain company in India and owned by Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company
Ltd, Cafe Coffee Day, operates 1,180 outlets.
US-based donut and coffee chain Dunkin’
Donuts, too, announced its entry in India in February. Under the agreement with
franchisee Jubilant FoodWorks, there will be 500 Dunkin’ Donuts outlets set up
over the next 15 years.
However, the first Dunkin’ Donuts store will
only open in the first half of 2012, Ajay Kaul, chief executive, Jubilant
FoodWorks, had told the media at the time of announcement.
Distinguishing itself from other chains in
the country, Di Bella will let consumers place orders through iPads on their
table and let use 20 minutes of free internet per cup of coffee.
“Our positioning is quite different from that
of existing players in India; our blends will be premium and super-premium. The
coffee here will be imported from Australia,” he said.
A cup of coffee at Di Bella outlets may cost
Rs150-200 compared with `60 and upwards at other coffee chains.After several
years of being present in the country, Barista Coffee Company that is now owned
by Italy’s Lavazza, in November launched its premium international format
Lavazza Espression in New Delhi.
Indian chains are unfazed by competition from
each other but are anticipating much of it from the likes of iconic
international chains Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts. Given the growing acceptance
of the cafe chain culture among Indian consumers, country’s largest consumer
goods company, Hindustan Unilever, last year launched Bru World Cafe. Both Cafe
Coffee Day and Costa Coffee said competition in the attractive and growing cafe
business was welcome.
“The per capita consumption of coffee in
India is just 82 grams. Compare that with four kilograms in the US. There is
great opportunity for all players, given that collectively all players have
only gone to 200 cities in the country of the potential 400-500 cities that can
offer growth,” K Ramakrishnan, president - marketing, Cafe Coffee Day, said.
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