The Hindu Business Line : Café Coffee Day plans to set up shops abroad

CAFÉ Coffee Day, the retail chain of the Rs 250-crore Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co, has brewed up a plan to set up 50 outlets abroad and expand the domestic presence by another 42 outlets.

Ms Sudipta Sen Gupta, head of the marketing of Café, indicated that Rs 10 crore would be the investment on the first set of overseas forays and about Rs 8 crore would be spent on new outlets in the country. All the new outlets would be established by this calendar year, she said.

Among the probable overseas locations of outlets in 10 cities are the Mediterranean region, East Europe, West Asia, South East Asia and China.

After profitably implementing various marketing initiatives in association with other brands, as also in merchandising, tie-ups with media, book store and music companies, Café is looking up to build a linkage with fashion and sports businesses.

Ms Sen Gupta told Business Line here on Tuesday: "Tie-ups in these two areas are very much on our horizon. The actual implementation may take some time," she added.

The total turnover of Café is expected to cross the Rs 100-crore mark soon. The proposed expansion plans are being executed through the internal accruals. Ms Sen Gupta pointed out that $15 million borrowing from AIG has been paid off.

She said the second phase of the customer loyalty programme - Café citizen - would be launched in August this year. It has already achieved a 1.35 lakh client base. The new tech-driven programme is expected to begin with an addition of another 50,000 cardholders in different cities.

Among the new marketing associations were a tie-up with Airtel for Mumbai outlets and an associative-cum-promotional package for a Hindi film. Café has also planned to add up 14 more outlets with bookshelves at different locations. The non-coffee marketing initiative contributes about 5 per cent of the annual turnover of Café.

The retail chain, owned an operated by the company, has no plan for going public or adopting franchise route for expansion. Ms Sen Gupta admitted that an exercise in Café brand valuation would "eventually be done" without naming the timeframe for it.