Coffee Chain Starbucks seeks rent waiver for three months

Tata Starbucks India, the joint venture between India’s largest conglomerate and the world’s biggest coffee chain, has written to landlords to waive rent for the next three months.

The Coffee chain has written the letter to its landlords of over 185 outlets across India because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Many restaurants have earlier demanded waiver from their landlords in result of this top developers like Lodha and Prestige group have already waived the rentals.

“In light of the current situation, we will be unable to bear rental and maintenance charges,” the coffee chain mentioned in the letter to its landlords.

The group has asked for a waiver for a three-month period starting March 1, and has said the situation can be reassessed after three months. Depending on any improvement, future terms can be mutually decided. As the company has already paid rentals and maintenance charges for March, it has said this amount be adjusted against future obligations.

The Starbucks letter said the lockdown due to coronavirus and its impact on consumer sentiment and businesses had led to the company implementing efficiencies in its manpower planning and other processes to bring down its operational overheads. “However, the only way to survive this crisis is by drastically reducing our fixed operating expenses in the immediate term till the consumption in the sector improves,” the letter added.