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Café Coffee Day outlets dot on pilgrim's map
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Saturday, 13 May, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Bosky Christopher, Mumbai
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s 300-crore Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Co Ltd (ABCTCL), pioneered the cafe concept in India in 1996. From a handful of cafes in six cites in the first five years, CCD has today become India's largest retail chain of cafes with 300 cafes in 68 cities around the country. CCD is now betting big on temple towns as areas with higher footfall catchment to push business volumes. It records 30-50% higher sales from these areas vis-à-vis regular outlets. With a range of products customised to suit the needs of the travellers, Sudipta Sen Gupta, senior general manager marketing, CCD in an interview with Bosky Christopher of Food & Beverage News spoke about its plans to take the number of outlets further up to 500 by June 2007. Excerpts:
Nothing catches the eye as much as a swank CCD outlet as one enters temple towns. Identify these outlets and are there any plans to open more such outlets?
In 1996 with the chain's first café at Brigade Road, Bangalore, the company realised that the urban Indian youth was looking at a place to relax and unwind and CCD filled this need gap. The largest retail chain of cafes has today become one that every customer relates to as his/her neighbourhood 'hangout'.
There is an element of familiarity that prompts one to visit the outlet while one is on transit, thus CCD has outlets at airports, gas stations, highways, tourist destinations and what's more even popular temple towns such as in Katra there are two cafes (en route Vaishno Devi), Amritsar there is one café (the Golden Temple), Bhubaneshwar there are three cafes (en route Jagannath Temple at Puri), Mathura highway has one café (birthplace of Lord Krishna), Madurai has one café (the Meenakshi Temple).
Also within metros there are certain cafes right opposite holy places, which show a marked increase in sales on certain specific days. For instance, the cafe opposite the Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai records a marked increase in sales on Tuesdays every week or during the eleven days of Ganesh Chaturthi. In Bangalore, opposite the café at Malleshwaram there is a Sai Baba Temple that draws a good number of pilgrims on Thursday/Friday particularly in the first week of the month; Sabarimala, a place that is frequented by pilgrims from November-January culminating in the rare view of a sacred 'Jyothi'; at Manipal which is close to the Udupi Lord Krishna temple, is frequented by pilgrims who visit here during the Janmashtami and last but not the least the churches which are nearby the Panjim/Miramar cafe in Goa include Old Panjim Church, Dona Paula church , St Inez, Caranzlem, Teligao that are very significant religious places for travellers from Europe, etc. CCD has immediate plans to open outlets in Tirupati, Varanasi and Allahabad.
What is the volume of business at these outlets?
CCD has been tracking results and it has been observed that there are about 500 walk-ins per day. Also the average daily sales at these outlets en route holy places are 30-50% higher than the regular CCD outlets, not counting the flagship ones.
How are the products customised to suit the needs of the devotees?
Typically a pilgrim walks into a CCD outlet en route the holy place owing to recall of the brand. Most domestic pilgrims at some point in their own city or town have visited a CCD outlet, therefore they walk into a CCD at a holy place most of the times knowing what to expect. However, since most are traveling, dry, take-away foods like cookies sell more.
While the potential at such places cannot be underestimated, are there any concerns pertaining to logistics and cold storage?
At certain times there are challenges owing to certain cafes being at high altitudes and transportation being sparse, however, over time we have learnt to tackle these issues better.
What is your strategy on the marketing and promotions front?
Interesting promotions with youth-oriented brands involve our customers during their time spent at the café. One such promotion with TVS led to participation of our customers in a painting competition and the gratification was a custom made TVS Scooty.
Promotions are carried out for customers during special days like Valentines Day, Friendship Day and also occasional festivals are carried out giving away special discounts etc. to our customers. Say for example weeklong dessert festivals, pizza festivals etc.
We at CCD are also constantly innovating with respect to café formats. While standardisation needs to be achieved in terms of ambience and service, coffee lovers seek a complete experience. There is hence the need to combine intelligent positioning with the right products at a particular café. There is the need for carefully designed café formats, to match the lifestyle of the consumer and enrich the café experience.
CCD has been making changes in an evolved manner in format depending on the preferences of clientele in certain areas bringing about a combination of synergistic tastes such as that for books and coffee through book cafes, internet and coffee through cyber cafes, music and coffee through music cafes, open air seating and coffee through garden cafes, round the clock road travel and coffee through highway cafes and now lounge and coffee through the latest lounge cafe format having been unveiled in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi and even at a few smaller cities. But these formats have been adopted only where the area and clientele yearn for it and that too taking care not to deviate from the basic cafe format and the soul of the genre. It is because of this conscious attempt that each of these formats have been immensely successful and have registered steady growth in numbers depending on the demand in various pockets for them.
CCD to add to the café experience also has great merchandise. This includes three packet coffees namely Arabicaah, Perfect and Charge along with a premium coffee called Dark Forest, Malabar Monsoon and Mysore Royal. Cookies in Honey and Oatmeal and Double Choco Chip flavours are a recent addition that has been very well received. Also in the offering are Coffee Filters, Mugs, and Message T-shirts for both men and women.
CCD pioneered the cafe concept in India in 1996. What potential do you see in the coffee retail market in coming years?
Coffee consumption in India until the late nineties was at a static 50,000 tonnes per annum and today this number has reached as per 2005 records a very impressive 80,000 tonnes per annum with 48% consumption being of the Roast and Ground (R&G) coffee. The café culture in the country was pioneered by CCD, which has today contributed to not just increase in coffee consumption over the years but has also facilitated for a place to 'hangout' for all across the country. There is huge potential in coffee retail owing to people's acceptance of coffee as a social lubricant and a need that has been created to 'hangout' at a place that provides for a truly world-class coffee drinking experience. Today the total number of cafes in the country stands at 300 across 68 cities that is slated to grow to 500 cafes by 2007.
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