Homegrown café chain Barista Coffee has set an ambitious expansion target of 800–900 outlets across India by 2030, sharpening its focus on tier-II and tier-III towns where rising aspirations, improving earning profiles, and lower operating costs are driving profitable growth.
The company, which recently opened its 500th café in Patna, is increasingly banking on smaller cities to fuel its next phase of expansion. “Over the last three to four years, we have been more focused on tier-II and tier-III markets, where yields are better and rentals are more manageable,” Barista Coffee Chief Executive Officer Rajat Agrawal said.
Buoyed by the growing coffee culture among young consumers beyond metros, Barista plans to add 50–60 outlets every year through a mix of company-owned, company-operated (COCO) and franchise-owned, franchise-operated (FOFO) models. The chain is currently present across all major metro markets, including Delhi-NCR, where it operates over 80 stores, and has a strong footprint in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
Alongside café expansion, Barista is aggressively scaling up its coffee vending machine business, which it entered two years ago. The company currently has around 500 vending machines installed and is targeting a tenfold expansion to about 5,000 machines over the next five years. The institutional segment has emerged as a key growth driver, with the company reporting strong early traction.
“This vertical is a big focus area for us, and the response from institutional customers has been encouraging,” Agrawal said.
Barista is pursuing a profitability-led growth strategy, leveraging lower operating costs in smaller towns while maintaining a steady presence in metro markets. According to Agrawal, India’s organised café chain market is valued at around ₹6,000 crore and is growing at a compound annual rate of 10–12 per cent, supported by increasing coffee consumption density.
At the network level, including franchise operations, Barista expects to clock revenues of about ₹400 crore in FY26, as it continues to deepen its reach beyond metros and strengthen its multi-format growth play.