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To cash in on the growing eating out culture among Indian consumers, food retail major Devyani International plans to invest Rs 200 crore in the next 2-3 years to take retail coffee chain Costa Coffee pan-India.
Devyani, part of the Rs 3,000-crore RJ Corporation, is the master franchisee for the world’s second largest coffee chain (after Starbucks) Costa Coffee of the UK.
The Ravi Jaipuria group company proposes to add 200 outlets in the next two years to take the total to 300 by 2015-16.
Launching its first store in Chennai, Virag Joshi, President and CEO of Devyani, said the company would focus on major cities first and will then enter tier II cities. The brand has tied up with Taj Sats, the Taj group’s airline catering wing, for the food served at its outlets.
The brand is currently present in cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Agra, Bangalore and now in Chennai. “Though we already have a small presence in this city – a small kiosk in Apollo Hospitals – this is our first high-street outlet. We have plans to open three more outlets here before the end of this year,” he said. According to him, it is all set to open one in Besant Nagar, a predominantly residential area by Elliots beach in Chennai, in the next few days. The brand’s immediate next destination will be Hyderabad, followed by Kochi and Coimbatore.
Globally, the 2,500-store strong Costa Coffee plans to triple its footprint by 2015-16. “Much of this growth will come from expansion in emerging markets such as India, China, Russia and North Africa,” said Andy Marshall, COO (International), Whitbread, which owns the Costa brand.
Setting up its first outlet in 2005 at Connaught Place in Delhi, Costa became the first international coffee chain to set up shop in India. It entered into a master franchisee pact with Devyani International, which is also the franchisee for international food retail brands such as KFC in the north and Pizza Hut for the north and east. The parent company RJ Corp is Pepsi’s biggest bottler in India and also has a presence in the brewery industry through Budweiser beer.
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