Brigade Group’s Baking Company takes the lounge route

Bengaluru, the city where Café Coffee Day was born, will witness the entry of a new player – The Baking Company, a brand owned and managed by Brigade Hospitality Services Ltd, a ₹48-crore enterprise of the Brigade Group.

TBC took shape as small bakery cafes and kiosks within three Brigade residential properties in Bengaluru in 2013, serving cup cakes, cookies, muffins, teacakes, samosas , sandwiches, puffs and rolls. Last year, TBC was launched in a standalone kiosk format created by award winning designer, Mike Foley, at the food court of a large commercial office complex – the World Trade Centre, followed by a second standalone kiosk at Orion Mall, in the city. The brand will be launched in a new Lounge format in South and North Bengaluru this year.

“We opened the sixth TBC outlet, which is a 90-sq-ft counter format at Orion East Mall’s food court on Saturday. Our highest selling TBC outlet is the World Trade Centre where we average sales of ₹35,000 a day at an average cheque value of ₹120, which typically includes a snack and a beverage,” Vineet Verma, Executive Director, Brigade Hospitality Services Ltd, told BusinessLine .

He said that what began as an experiment selling a few bakery products has now metamorphosed into a full-fledged deli with tea cakes, burgers, breads, pastas, sandwiches, Indian snacks, croissants, desserts and assorted chocolates. To cater to the health-conscious generation, options such as multi-grain and whole wheat cookies, breads and cakes are available along with hot and cold beverages.

“We are in the final stages of introducing a new format – TBC lounge, scheduled for launch in June/July which will be a part of the country’s first Indian Music Experience museum that the Brigade Group is opening in south Bengaluru. This has been designed as an alfresco lounge to seat 40-45 guests. Later this year, our second TBC Lounge with both indoor and alfresco seating to accommodate 50 guests will open at the Brigade Magnum commercial office complex in north Bengaluru,” said Verma.

Asked how TBC pricing compares with others in the same space, especially Café Coffee Day, Verma said, “TBC is not a café because our main offering is Deli and Patisserie as against cafes where beverages are the mainstay. Our pricing is a notch lower than Café Coffee Day but, much higher than the local Iyengar bakeries.”

The Indian Café market dominated by Café Coffee Day which has established over 1,500 café footprint, stands at ₹650 crore and is growing at 8-10 per cent year-on-year.

Brand and marketing consultant, Harish Bijoor pointed out that every city has niche players such as TBC, which typically operate out of premium captive locations such as, art galleries, five-star hotels, Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, or Ranga Shankara theatre in Bengaluru, providing the much needed variety in F&B that every city can absorb.

“Niche players such as TBC will thrive, but remain small and can by no means be compared with Café Coffee Day or Starbucks, which own core competence in the café business,” said Bijoor.

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