Starbucks opens first flagship store in New Delhi - Livemint

New Delhi: Starbucks Coffee Co. on Wednesday opened it's seventh store in India in New Delhi's Connaught Place. Spread over two floors, the outlet is the company's first flagship store in the Capital. Earlier this month, the Seattle-based coffee chain opened two smaller-format cafe's at the New Delhi airport; it has four more outlets in Mumbai. The coffee chain is studying other markets in India to open outlets, said Avani Saglani Davda, chief executive, Tata Starbucks Ltd. "It's not like we will not look at markets such as Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, etc. But we will turn up at the right time," she said, adding that the top 53 cities in the country are on the list of all retailers. "We are committed to India for the long term" said John Culver, president, Starbucks Coffee China and Asia Pacific. "We see India to be one of our top five largest markets within the Starbucks system over time." Starbucks, which has more than 18,000 stores around the globe, counts the US, Canada, China, Japan and the UK as it's top five markets. With 700 stores, China is expected to become Starbucks' largest market outside the US by 2014. India's cafe market is growing at 25% annually. Although India remains predominantly a tea-drinking country, cafe chains such as Cafe Coffee Day, Costa Coffee and Barista have increasingly gained presence, accounting for $230 million of the $2 billion organized food market, retail consultancy Technopak Advisors said in an October report. Starbucks entered India in October through a equal joint venture between Starbucks Coffee and Tata Global Beverages Ltd called Tata Starbucks. via Business - Google News

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