What are Costa Coffees expansion plans in India?
Currently, r e have 36 stores in the country and a looking at doubling the number by end of 2008. Our expansion focus will be high street locations, IT Parks and malls. These are all areas of high foot-falls. We are also looking at expanding at metro and railway stations and airports. In fact the process for bidding for railway stations is at present going on. How important is the Indian market for Costa Coffee Worldwide? In next five years, India will be our third biggest market, in terms of number of stores after China and the UK. But hasn’t Costa’s expansion in India been a little slow as compared to other players? Yes. We first wanted to test waters in this market. We wanted to wait and watch if we can survive in such an aggressive pricing environment. To give you an idea how aggressive the pricing in Indian market is, sample this; In the UK, we sell a cup of coffee for f2, whereas in India market we sell that for just half a pound (Rs. 49). In the Middle East, w sell it for around
