In the 2000s, it was one of the most aspiring places to be seen hanging around. On 30 Mar. ’23, the company opened its 350th cafe at Udaipur, Rajasthan as the company celebrates its 23rd year in the coffee business.
Rajat Agrawal, CEO Barista said, “At Barista, we are expanding our footprint across the country in a strategic manner and plan to be at 500 store count over the next 2 years. The objective is to connect with the larger community and be accessible for our consumers at multiple touch points. Over the past few years we have expanded well in tourist destinations and Udaipur is the latest entrant to the list. We are excited to be brewing in Udaipur and look to serve both Domestic and International guests at this store.”
The cafe space in India has seen a roller-coster ride in the last 20 years. There was a huge surge between 2005 – 2010 when a number of international brands entered India, proliferated malls and scaled expansion. Costa, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf along with Cafe Coffee Day, Barista and neighbourhood ones together operated over 2,000 cafes until 2014-15 across the top 100 cities and towns in India as well as on national and state highways, corporate parks, tech parks, educational campuses, airports, etc.
Then, the preferred choice for hanging around by consumers was briefly taken over by QSR chains such as McDonalds, Burger King, Dominos among others as well as beverage chains such as Keventers, Drunken Monkey, etc.
Starbucks entered India in 2012 and has since expanded to 350+ outlets, though their cafes are much larger in size compared to others and with significant Capex of up to Rs. 60-70 lakhs per outlet for 2,000 sq ft. CCD has since shrunk from a peak of 1,500 cafes to 300+ at the moment. Though the current market size for coffee shops across India is in the range of 5,000 outlets, the number of operational ones is 3,000. Newer entrants such as Blue Tokai, Third Wave Coffee, etc. and tea retail chains such as Chaayos, Chai Point, Tata-Cha, etc. have been scaling fast as well.
