Tata-owned coffee shop venture Tata Starbucks is on a store-opening spree in India, with the company planning to add more than 30 outlets across the country during the current fiscal year. As part of this expansion, the coffee chain opened five new stores last week in Gujarat, entering the state for the first time since its launch in 2012.
Starbucks now has 157 outlets across 10 cities major cities, including Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru. The company will open more stores in the current financial year compared to the 30 last year, as it continues to look for opportunities to expand everywhere in the country, CEO Navin Gurnaney said. The company had added 25 stores in the fiscal year 2017-18 and another 30 stores in FY2018-19.
With coffee consumption steadily growing in India, Tata Starbucks sees “fantastic trajectory of growth, and will remain very bullish on India”, Gurnaney said.
“We will open more stores in FY 20 than in any other year in the past in India,” he added. Tata Starbucks is a 50:50 joint venture company between Tata Global Beverages and US-based Starbucks Coffee. It had recorded a 30 per cent revenue growth in the fiscal year 2018-19, driven by new stores openings and improved performance.
In order to cater to the widely differing food preferences of customers in the Indian market, Starbucks has also begun adding or removing food products offered at its stores depending on the region. According to company officials, the chain revamped its food menu in outlets located in Mumbai and Pune, adding as many as 18 new food items and discontinuing a few.
“Gujarat stores, for instance, will offer more vegetarian options than anywhere else in the country,” Gurnaney noted, adding that the new menu that includes cheesecakes, breakfast sandwiches and masala chole wrap (spicy chickpea wraps) will be rolled out across all stores by the end of September this year.
Revamped menus
The chain is revamping its food menu across India and has already done so in outlets located in Mumbai and Pune, adding 18 items