The Hindu Business Line : illycafe plans rollout of licensed chain in 6 months

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Bangalore Feb. 22 Italian coffee roaster illycafe is brewing up a mega plan for India, wherein it proposes to roll out its global chain of licensed café "Espressamente" in the next six months.

"We are currently in talks with various companies to select a sound and strong partner who would be setting up the Espressamente bars in various Indian cities," said Mr Roberto Morelli, Coffee Culture Manager, illycafe and Director of Universita del Caffe.

Quality matters

The whole idea is to promote quality coffee culture by bringing in the original Italian cult of espresso to India, Mr Morelli said. This means that illycafe would ensure right from the barista's skills to providing architecture design, Italian furniture, food and beverage to the master franchisee, who would set up the cafes by making his investments and run them, he said.

Over the last three years, illycafe has set up over 104 Espressamente bars worldwide as part of its targeted 600 such bars and is keenly interested to take the Italiano coffee chain to Asian countries such as Japan, India and China.

"We are targeting to open about 100 Espressamente bars in India in the next two to three years," Mr Morellis said, adding the sizes could vary from a small corner shop to a large outlet.

Coffee curiosity

Typically, illycafe doesn't own the Espressamente chain. But the company owns one outlet each in Paris and Tokyo. "We are also planning to open our own outlet in one of the important Indian cities," Mr Morelli said, adding having an own outlet helps us in introducing and testing new products.

Unlike China where tea is preferred beverage, the Indian market makes a good proposition for us, as there is curiosity for coffee, Mr Morelli said.

Buoyed by the major potential that India holds, global coffee chains such as Starbucks, illycafe, among others, are keen to enter the country. Rising disposable incomes driven by the rapidly growing new economy is seen boosting coffee consumption in India, which has increased to 80,000 tonnes from 55,000 tonnes in the past three years.

Espresso blends

illycafe has a partnership with the Sterling Group in India, through which it distributes its espresso blends. "We have seen a 28 per cent growth in the Indian market in 2006 over the previous year," he said, adding that India has been the fastest growing geography for illycafe.

illycafe, which produces and markets a unique blend of espresso coffee under a single brand, is also the largest buyer of Indian Arabicas. Last year, illycafe purchased some 2,100 tonnes of arabicas, paying a premium to Indian growers.