The engaging logo of the pot-bellied coffee maker juggling his classic steel tumblers is all set to invade tea drinking bastions in north of the Vindhyas under the brand Hatti Kaapi. Rooted in Bengaluru, the affordable and well-researched over-the-counter format is the brainchild of U S Mahendar, a small town coffee powder maker, hailing from Hassan district. Catering to office goers, tourists, shoppers and passersby, the distinctive little outlets dish up seemingly endless South Indian style cups of filter coffee. They almost serve 70,000 cups of coffee on a daily basis along with a small range of teas, milkshakes and snacks.
The Hatti Kaapi growth chart is impressive. It began as one tiny outlet in 2009 operating out of Bengaluru’s bustling Gandhi Bazar area and located under a stuffy staircase. Now 40 units are spread across street corners, tech-parks and more recently airports in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. At Rs 12, one can get a cup of hot filter coffee and khara bhath, while a cup of hot coffee costs Rs 5.
Mahendar himself sounds a tad bemused by their success and the several awards and recognitions they have won. “It was at 5.30 am on November 27, 2009, that we served our first cup of traditional filter coffee from our 40 sq ft counter in Gandhi Bazaar. We sold 3,000 cups at Rs 5 each the next day and haven’t looked back since,” he says, adding, “I came to Bengaluru with my mother, friend M L Gowda who is now a partner in Hatti Kaapi and with just Rs 2,000 in hand. My mission was to market our coffee powder to some of the big Udupi restaurant chains specialising in South Indian filter coffee. One particular brand insisted that we come in at 4 am each day , brew the coffee, serve it to customers and collect feedback on the quality.”
After three exhausting months of doing this, they were told that they were not good. In retrospect, that rejection turned out to be in their favour. Mahendar took it as a challenge and decided to start his own brand.
He attributes his success to his core team which includes a mix of Starbucks baristas, industry veterans like S Lakshmana Swamy from Hindustan Unilever, his head of operations Balaji A R and several others who have been around since its inception. “We are now taking on tea drinking areas up north—Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. My dream is to have a Hatti Kaapi presence in major international cities like New York and Paris,” says he. This does not seem impossible as word has it that they are developing ties with international super market chains like Carrefour although they currently have no plans to raise money externally or to dilute their stake.
“You cannot beat our price or our packaging. We serve you coffee in earthen pots, takeaway cups or old-fashioned steel tumblers,” says he. And to satisfy those hunger pangs they also have a no-fuss menu of samosas, rolls, South Indian rice- and lentil-based staples like idlis or Bisibele Bhath (hot rice-dal mixture), stuffed buns and bags of savoury dips. “Our biggest challenge is keeping our price low without compromising on quality. Since we started, we have only increased our prices by Rs 3 per cup in corporate campuses and Rs 5 elsewhere. Yet the quality of our coffee powder and milk is not compromised on. We want to be the quintessential neighborhood adda that everyone must want on their street corner,” he signs off.