Even as restaurant chains and standalone eateries buckled under the brunt of two consecutive lockdowns induced by a global pandemic, Tata Starbucks, the Seattle-headquartered coffee chain giant that has partnered with the largest conglomerate in India, says it is on track with its growth plans.
"We have continued to grow over the last 12 to 18 months, and we are now at around 240 stores in 20 cities, with around 2,000 partners at the store level," says Sushant Dash, Tata Starbucks president.
The company saw sales grow 128 per cent last quarter and delivery revenue -- earnings from home deliveries -- rise 17 per cent, he added.
"We have continued to be very bullish and have actually looked at expansion with the same vigour. In fact, if I look at a 12-month period, we opened around 37 stores, which is the highest in 12 months since inception, and we have gone to nine new cities since August 2020," Dash says.
These include Jaipur, Kanpur, Indore, Bhopal, Ludhiana, Kochi, Amritsar, Lucknow and Vapi.
Major competitors in terms of cafe outlets for Starbucks are Cafe Coffee Day (572 cafes in 165 cities and 333 kiosks), Blue Tokai Coffee (39 outlets across India), Costa Coffee, Baristas Coffee Company and McDonald's McCafe.
And major competitors in the packaged coffee segment are Blue Tokai Coffee, Davidoff Coffee, The Indian Bean and The Coffee Co.