After Subway, Culinary Brands to Operate Lavazza in India

Culinary Brands (CB), the F&B arm of Everstone Group has signed an exclusive license for the premium Lavazza brand in India.

CB also acquired from Lavazza Group a significant majority stake in Fresh and Honest Café Limited (F&H), the owners of the manufacturing facility in Sri City, Andhra Pradesh (with a capacity of 9,000 tons per annum) and of the affordable 'Fresh and Honest' coffee brand.

CB is the exclusive Master Franchisee of Subway in India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. This partnership was a significant step in Subway's transformation journey and expansion plans globally. Under this exclusive agreement, CB will triple Subway stores in India over 10 years.

"After acquiring the exclusive master franchisee rights for Subway, we are very proud and excited to acquire F&H. F&H owns the affordable Fresh and Honest coffee brand and has the exclusive rights for the premium Lavazza brand,” shared Dev Amritesh, CEO, Culinary Brands aby adding that leveraging these strong brands, F&H's manufacturing capability, and their strong leadership team with experience of building large F&B businesses in India, they look forward to making Lavazza and Fresh and Honest the beverage of choice for Indians through distribution, product leadership, partnerships and enhanced presence across channels and consumption opportunities.

Dev Amritesh joined Culinary Brands in November this year from Compass Group in India, part of Compass PLC, where he was the Managing Director - India.

Prior to this, Dev worked with leading consumer companies including Whirlpool, Cadbury, and Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd. (JFL).

In his last role at JFL, Dev was the President and Chief Business officer of Domino's Pizza India and Sri Lanka.

"Lavazza Group has been operating in India for the last 15 years. We believe that such credible and solid local partner will ensure the achievement of the full potential and that Lavazza brand will have an even stronger growth and positioning in the future as India grows its consumption of coffee," added Antonio Baravalle, CEO of Lavazza Group.

In the transaction, Lavazza was assisted by BDA Partners, Desai & Diwanji and Deloitte India.