Cafe Coffee Day look eastward to expand

Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), the market leading coffee chain in India, are planning to increase their overseas presence, specifically drawing up plans to expand their venture in South East Asia.

With Starbucks and other western-based coffee giants such as Dunkin’ Donuts eying up new emerging economic nations as prime locations to sustain their never-ending desire for growth, India’s Café Coffee Day, already bullish about taking on their American counterparts, are looking east themselves. And, for the first time in company history, they may adopt the franchise model that is predominantly favoured by the well-known behemoths.

Senior officials in the CCD hierarchy have been alluding to an announcement that would see them begin to operate in South East Asia during the next financial year and, according to rumours, they are currently in advanced talks with some potential partners.

“The thought process is that, if we align with a local franchisee partner, we may have a deeper understanding of the customer preferences in the local markets,” a senior CCD official is reported to have said.

The dining culture in South East Asia is, according to Tarun Jain, the vice president of food services at Technopak Advisors, very different to that of India and so the franchisee route could well be a positive strategic move for CCD to make in the long term.

Compared to India many South East Asian nations opt to eat out rather than eat at home. “The eating hours extend from morning to late-night, whereas in India the breakfast market is still in the early stages and most eateries are shut by midnight,” Jain stated.

“This leads to great opportunities for food-service operators and a higher rate of return-visits.”

At the moment CCD have around 1,500 across India and ‘looking east’ is just a small part of their plans for the next twenty-four months – they are aiming to open up a further 500 stores in total to bring their presence to 2,000 outlets that are under the Cafe Coffee Day banner.

Though this move, if it goes ahead, would not be the first time that the coffee giant on the subcontinent has stepped outside the borders of India. The company operate cafes in Vienna, Dubai and they have a small presence of eleven outlets in the Czech Republic with seven in the capital city of Prague.