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Introduction:In December 2003, India's largest coffee conglomerate, Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading
Company Ltd (ABCTCL), announced major expansion plans for its Café Coffee Day
(Coffee Day) chain of cafés.
On the anvil was expansion into overseas markets. ABCTCL
identified China, the Middle East and Far East Asia as the initial markets for its international
foray. Domestically, Coffee Day had 147 cafés in 37 cities, which made it India's largest and
widespread retail chain of cafés, in 2003.
The coffee chain had plans to operate 200 cafés in
60 cities by June 2004 and increase its worldwide café network to 500 by 2006. Also,
ABCTCL planned to increase its smaller format cafés – Coffee Day Xpress – to 100 by
March 2004, from 59 in 2003.
As a part of its expansion plan the company took major
initiatives in setting up vending machines, kiosks, branded filter coffee and marketing tieups.
"We are swiftly moving towards building a mass customer base with specific focus on
the young generation. Our initiatives are pegged to result in a 25% annual rise in revenues
in the coming years, from the present INR3 bn", said the company's chairman,VG Siddhartha.
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