India is the highest tea consuming country globally and second largest producer of the tea in the world after China. The country consumes 837,000 tons of tea every year, making it the most popular drink by far. In India, tea market is 8 times bigger than coffee.
Tapping the ever-growing tea market in India, T’Pot Cafe, known for serving a wide variety of herbal teas, white teas, black teas and ice teas, is looking forward to expand its retail presence.
In an exclusive interview with Indiaretailing Bureau, Owner, T’Pot Cafe, Robin Jha said, “We set up T’Pot Cafe in 2013 and during our initial years we tried to understand the market and business models where we can fit. And after making ourselves stable in the market, we started expanding by opening more outlets from 2014 onward. Currently, we have 25 outlets in Delhi/NCR and around 10 more outlets are in the pipeline. However, due to demonetization our expansion plan got delayed as we kept waiting for the proper liquidity flow to be back in the market before we start expanding. And as now market situation has improving, we have started executing our expansion plans from January 2017 onwards. We expect to hit the number of 50 outlets in next 3-4 months.”
He further added, “We are aiming to open 75 outlets by the end of March 2018 taking the total store count to 100.”
Fund-Raising
Till now, T’Pot Cafe has raised two rounds of funding and are looking forward to raise the next round of the funding towards the end of this year.
“There is a possibility for us of having at least 500 cafes in India by 2020. And that’s what our focus is to raise money for the expansion and to build the team that will help us in operations,” revealed Jha.
The cafe, that specialises in chai-nashta segment, is based on COCO model and currently there are no plans to go the franchise way.
The Chai-Nashta Segment
Explaining the concept and the recent development of the brand, Jha said, “Chai-Nashta is an under-served opportunity in India and is primarily unorganised. Our team has built a strong foundation in Delhi/NCR region. Having gained a good traction of consumers here, we are confident to establish our brand presence in other markets too.”
Exploring New Avenues
Geographically, zones which are around India like South East Asia and the Middle East are two of the highest per capita tea consuming geographies. So there is very high opportunity for the players like T’Pot Cafe to set a foothold in India and then go out of India as well.
“Within India, there are opportunities in Tier II and Tier III cities because at this point there is hardly any place for people there to go and enjoy in these cities. If people want to hang out there is hardly any opportunity available for them. So, we feel that T’Pot Cafe which serves give good quality food at an affordable price will be the right player to tap these markets,” said Jha.
Tapping Transit Retail
The cafe chain that looking to hit a monthly run rate of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2 crore is leaving no stone unturned to tap the transit retail.
“We have our outlets at Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3, Rajiv Chowk Metro Station and Phase 3 Metro Station at Gurugram. We keep our consumers needs in mind and make sure that we deliver our products packed very carefully so that people can enjoy their meal if they are in hurry or travelling from one place to another,” concluded Jha.
The cafe, that specialises in chai-nashta segment, is based on COCO model and currently there are no plans to go the franchise way
Must Read
