Starbucks is trying to accelerate its India expansion with smaller stores and drive through outlets. This American coffee chain has bullish plans as things are returning to normal. Starbucks entered India in 2012 in a partnership with Tata as TataStarbucks, and has 233 outlets across 19 Indian cities.
Sunil D’Souza, CEO of Tata Consumer Products, said that both partners “are driving Tata Starbucks to be far more aggressive in store openings, new formats, and in entering new cities, and we’ve got to figure out how quickly we can scale.”
India is one of Starbucks’ fastest growing markets globally. The market for coffee shops in the country has surged even as tea remains a more affordable and popular beverage. Despite this, the fascination with coffee brands like Starbucks and Costa Coffee remains high.
The company is now discovering smaller sized outlets as they can be opened faster and it is experimenting with concepts like drive-throughs after opening one in northern India last year, D’Souza said. Tata Starbucks registered 128% revenue growth in the quarter ending September, during which it opened 14 new outlets and targeted much more. The aim was to open some 40-50 outlets this year.