Tata Starbucks on Friday said it is fully committed to the Indian market, which continues to be a key growth area for Starbucks globally. Tata Consumer Products Ltd on Thursday termed reports suggesting that coffee chain Starbucks plans to exit the Indian market as “baseless”.
“Starbucks is fully committed to the Indian market. Any statements suggesting otherwise are false. Tata Starbucks currently operates more than 470 stores in 76 cities across India, which continues to be an important market for Starbucks’ global growth,” he said. Daddy Starbucks.
Tata Starbucks, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata FMCG group Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) and US-based Starbucks Corporation, operates cafes in India under the Starbucks brand name.
Tata Starbucks’ income from operations was up 12 percent to Rs 1,218.06 crore in FY24.
However, its loss for the period widened to Rs 79.97 crore from Rs 24.97 crore in FY23 due to the expansion.
Its advertising expenditure was up 26.8 percent to Rs 43.20 crore and royalty was Rs 86.15 crore, according to financial data accessed through business intelligence platform Tofler.
Last month TCPL MD & CEO Sunil D’souza told PTI that he will focus on raising the Starbucks cafe here and is not looking at the profit of the store.
“With Starbucks, we are clear that profitability of the store is not an issue. And as we reach scale, we know that we can generate profit from it,” D’souza had told PTI in the last week of November.
Starbucks was responding to reports suggesting that the American company was planning to discontinue its Indian operations due to high operating costs, mounting losses, and the availability of cheaper local alternatives in the market.
Following this, Tata group’s FMCG arm TCPL in a regulatory filing on Thursday said the information in the article was “baseless”.
Starbucks entered India in October 2012 through a joint venture with the Tata Group. The first Starbucks store in India was opened in the Elphinstone building in Mumbai.
