The Hindu Business Line : Barista to unveil coffee lounges, highway bars

SPECIALTY coffee retailer Barista Coffee is brewing up plans to make coffee drinking a more exciting experience. Over the next few months the chain will invest an estimated Rs 50 crore and use a combination of the latest in technology, differential pricing and a host of market initiatives to build the brand. Barista's Chief Operating Officer, Mr Brotin Banerjee, said the company is soon to unveil the coffee brand in two new avatars — a premium coffee lounge in New Delhi's South Extension locality, and a chain of `Barista Coffee on the go' bars on major national highways, in collaboration with IOCL.

Mr Banerjee said the company will invest between Rs 45 lakh and Rs 50 lakh on the 3,000-sq. ft. coffee lounge, which will offer a selection of specialty coffee, continental food and desserts against the backdrop of live bands and a dance floor. "We plan to launch at least 4-5 lounge bars in the metros in the current fiscal," he said.

The company has, meanwhile, tied-up with IOCL to launch coffee for travellers on national highways. `Barista coffee on the go' bars will offer lower priced coffee and a limited menu of convenience foods such as sandwiches. The first of these will come up at Karnal on the Delhi-Chandigarh highway in July and the company plans to roll out at least 15-20 of these on major national highways, along the Mumbai-Pune region and the Bangalore-Chennai, Bangalore-Mysore stretches, to begin with.

Barista is set to offer a combination of a brand new menu with a host of healthy and calorie-conscious menu and differential pricing, the latter for tier two cities with a 15 per cent discount on its coffee. While in Pune to inaugurate its 50th outlet, Mr Banerjee said the company has tied-up with local colleges and will offer the students a further 15 per cent discount. The company is harnessing the power of technology at its outlets and also to ensure better profitability. "We are implementing a Rs 2.5-crore SAP IS Retail, a specialised module to bring down the cost of our back-end operations. A combination of just in time inventory, lower cost of procurement thanks to bulk buying and long-term contracts with vendors now allow us to reduce costs, while maintaining the quality, Mr Banerjee said. The company's use of IT also extends into its retail outlets, 35 of which are wi-fi enabled and 30 more by the end of the fiscal.

The coffee chain's overseas business is also growing with two more outlets planned to the existing three outlets in Sri Lanka, and Dubai will have a total of 10 outlets by the end of the fiscal. "We are looking at other places like Turkey and Iran and our joint venture partners in Sri Lanka and Dubai have evinced interest in expanding into other markets," Mr Banerjee added.

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