Indian coffee chain, Barista, is eyeing ₹100 crore investment for its business expansion over the next two years.
The investment will include company-owned stores and franchises as it targets to have 500 stores by 2025.
Barista, which started in 2000, is planning on expansion across metros, non-metro cities, and city highways.
“Investments, which will be required in opening new stores, will be ₹100 crore. This will include our owned stores and franchises as they will be under our umbrella and a part of the overall investment,” said Rajat Agrawal, CEO, Barista to businessline.
Global giants, including Tim Hortons and Pret A Manger that have entered India, are systematically increasing their operations across the country. Canadian multinational, Tim Hortons, recently launched two outlets in Mumbai.
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While Tata-owned Starbucks in the country is expanding its presence rapidly outside of metro cities.
Barista currently has 362 outlets including its presence in SriLanka, Maldives, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar.
“We opened 150 outlets over the last three years. With the size growth we have seen, 500 stores is a realistic number. There are two models that we primarily work around, one is going through our network that is the company’s store and the second is where we look at opening franchisee-own stores. There will be nearly 400 plus outlets in the next five to six months and in the next year and a half will open 100 more outlets. We are aligned with the targets,” he said.
Expansion beyond metros cities
The company is looking for expanding its presence beyond metro cities and increase its store penetration.
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“In the last four to five years, the demand from some of the smaller cities has been quite encouraging. During Covid-19, a lot of people moved out from metro cities to non-metros, which also helped us to have a pent-up demand that is now slowly and steadily coming back. I don’t see that there is any decline in that, we are growing at a good pace even in the non-metros. With this kind of inventory, it is obvious for us to look outside metros and return to highways. We are also looking at tier one and tier two cities where there is demand and people are looking at good opportunities,” added Rajat.