Experience the authentic flavour
Experience the authentic flavour

Barista that provides authentic coffee drinking experience was recently in news with its expansion spree. With the introduction of a new menu, ‘coffee with liqueur’, Sanjay Coutinho, COO, Barista speaks about the new product and business strategies.

Subhro Prakash Ghosh (SPG): What is your retail expansion plan? Other than metros, what kinds of cities are you planning to penetrate? 

Sanjay Coutinho (SC): We are looking at expanding our retail presence by increasing outlet count by 225-230 in the next six months. We are in talks with HPCL (Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd) and BPCL (Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd) for highway cafés, and planning to open 12-15 more such outlets. This is the kind of move, which is aimed to increase the revenue by 30 per cent.

In June 2009, Lavazza finalised brand integration with Barista. Presently, Barista Lavazza has more than 200 outlets across 29 cities. We are also planning to enter four to five cities more and expand in Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Goa and Assam. Within a span of three years, we would open 300 cafés on the highways to cater to the travellers.

SPG: What kind of investment are you making in the expansion? 

SC: We have a plan to invest Rs 12 crore during the second half of the present fiscal year in order to unveil 25 cafés across the nation.

SPG: Who are your target audiences/customers? 

SC: We generally aim to cater to the middle class and upper middle class. Our target audiences usually fall under the age group of 19-35, the young adults, who have a taste of contemporary lifestyles and accordingly cherish the brewed espresso in a warm and fascinating milieu.

SPG: How do you ensure that the customers get the experience of a true Italian coffee house? 

SC: Our business strategy is to boost the consumers’ likings by improving the service level, altering the store looks and constantly improving the quality of the products. We always look into the demand of the consumers with their changing trends and accordingly we introduce new concepts. For instance, recently we introduced a unique concept ‘coffee with liqueur’ in one of our premium cafés in Delhi. If this suits the consumer’s taste, then we will launch the similar format in the other cafés also.

SPG: What kind of returns are you expecting from the expansion? 

SC: We aim to increase the revenue by Rs 100 crore during this fiscal year; the turnover of Rs 200 crore was recorded in the fiscal year 2009. Overall, we are foreseeing a turnover of Rs 300 crore by the completion of the present fiscal.

SPG: Do you have any plan to completely change the brand name to Lavazza?

SC: No, we do not have any plan to change the brand name completely to Lavazza, because the existing brand name has raised so much awareness among the customers that instilling new name will add no plus point to the branding strategy.

SPG: What is your business strategy to beat the competitors?

SC: We do not chase the numbers or compare with our competitors as we think it is not a number game. Rather we believe in introducing new concepts, enhancing the preferences of the customers and improvising at the store level.

SPG: All Barista cafés are company-owned. Do you think franchise business model can help you expand?

SC: As I said, our aim is not to increase the numbers speedily. Yes, franchising is obviously one of the best business models, but presently we are not considering it.

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