Italian coffee chain Lavazza on Thursday launched liqueur coffees in India and said it will expand its cafe outlets Barista as part of plans to clock Rs 300 crore revenue from the country by next year.
Liqueur coffees, introduced for the first time in India by Lavazza, will be initially available at only one of its Barista outlet in Delhi.
?Our target is to be a Rs 300-crore company in India from our two chains ? Barista and Fresh & Honest,? Barista Coffee Company Chief Operating Officer Sanjay Coutinho said in New Delhi.
?This will involve a number of measures, including expansion of the Barista chain, promoting our newly launched liqueur coffees, rental renegotiations and so on,? he added.
Coutinho said Lavazza, which is looking at closing the year with Rs 220 crore revenue from India, plans to expand its Barista chain by adding another 20-25 outlets within the next few months with an investment of around Rs 10-15 crore.
?In the last seven months we have opened 21 outlets in India and we will be adding another 20-25 by March 2010. Each outlet will require an investment of Rs 30-50 lakh and they will mostly be in metros and Tier I cities,? Cautinho said.
Barista Lavazza has over 200 outlets in India.
He said Barista Lavazza may look at introducing liqueur coffees at some outlets in other metros as well, based on customer feedback over next two to four months.
Cautinho, however, said, ?So far we have not sought licences for liqueur coffees for any other outlet.? He added that Lavazza?s introducing liqueur coffees was just an innovation and it will do ?everything within the coffee domain.? Lavazza acquired Barista and Fresh & Honest from Sterling Infotech Group in 2007. In June, Lavazza completed brand integration with Barista.
As part of cost-cutting, Cautinho said, the company is renegotiation rentals to include revenue share model, on the lines of various other retail majors.
?This involves various models, including adoption of revenue sharing, reducing rentals and entering into rent escalation waiver agreements with property owners,? he said.