Starbucks India to ramp up store openings in 2020
The chain serves an average of 270,000 customers per week in the growing economy.
Starbucks India is looking to accelerate store rollout, investing more than US$6.4 – 7.1m open more stores compared to previous financial years.
The coffee giant, with local partner Tata Global Beverages, opened 25 new stores in the last financial year and 30 new stores this year.
“We spend anywhere between $213,000 and $284,000 to build a store,” Starbucks India CEO Navin Gurnaney told the Business Standard. “We would not be being aggressive with our store growth if we didn’t see potential. We think the market is very strong. Excellence is always well received and we believe we have excellent experience, partners and products. We are extremely bullish on India.”
Gurnaney adds that India is one of the top five growing markets for Starbucks internationally, and serves an average of 270,000 customers per week.
No surprise, 90% of their chosen beverages are coffee.
“People don’t come to us just to buy a sandwich,” Gurnaney added. “It is always an accompaniment with a beverage. The coffee category has been growing with all groups of people and the millennials are certainly gravitating towards coffee. But not just millennials, it is also the 30 years something upwardly mobile, better travelled and better educated people which are growing in India.”
Starbucks entered India in 2012 with its first store in Mumbai.
