Barista Lavazza

The old Barista espresso bar in Kochi which is now closed down due to poor demand in the city

The Barista espresso bar in Coimbatore, India

Barista Lavazza is a chain of espresso bars in India. Established in 1997 as Barista, it was taken over by Lavazza, an Italy’s largest coffee company in 2008.

Description

Headquartered in Noida, Barista currently has espresso bars across India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Middle East. It was founded in 1997 by Amit Judge as part of his group of companies. He sold part of the equity to Tata Coffee. After he and Tata Coffee fell apart, Sterling Sivasankaran bought the firm. In 2007, Sterling divested his stake to Lavazza. Barista Lavazza is currently owned by Lavazza, Italy’s largest coffee company. The coffee is supplied by the Indian roaster Fresh and Honest, headquartered in Chennai, which is also owned by Lavazza. As of 2009, the chain has 200 stores in India, with an estimated annual revenue of Rs 200 crores.

Barista was the fastest brand to make it on the list of super brands and is ranked among the top 50 phenomenons that changed India.^{[citation needed]}

History

• The first Barista Lavazza was opened at Basant Lok, New Delhi in Feb 2000. Lavazza traces its origin back to 1895.
• Lavazza is the sixth largest coffee roaster in the world. Operating in over 80 countries, it has a 46.5% share in the Italian retail market.
• Barista Lavazza is known as a pioneer of Indian Cafe Culture.

Competitors

• Cafe Coffee Day - Coffee shops are expanding their market through brand extension. There is always a fierce competition between Barista Lavazza and Cafe Coffee Day. CCD launches its mineral water, cookies, chips, t-shirts, mugs etc. Barista is adding a new range of beverages and eatables, mugs, jewel sippers, candles and soft toys etc. Since CCD has 460 cafes in 80 cities, it is more accessible to the customers compared to Barista's 230 coffee retail outlets. Currently, CCD has tapped the coffee shop industry in India, out of 1400 coffee shop retail outlets registered in India, 1016 belong to CCD. In order to increase CCD's market presence in India and abroad, Coffee Day Holdings, the parent company of CCD, secured investments totaling US $125 million from UK based firm Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited and US based private equity and venture capital firm New Silk Route Partners. While competitors like Barista Lavazza and Costa Coffee focus on the top 20 percent, who are able to afford over US $3 per espressso drink, CCD caters to all except the lowest 25 percent of the Indian consumers.

• Costa Coffee - With only 40 outlets operational across the country, Barista Lavazza is facing stiff competition from Costa Coffee. It is located only in metro areas; Costa is an urban format and location plays a crucial role in its business plan. Although it made a few mistakes when it came to India in 2005, like replicating the same UK model in India and opening stores at wrong locations, it has managed to bounce back. Their most profitable venture until now is from off premise business where they are setting up kiosks in marriages, seminars and meetings. In the last quarter of 2009, Costa has seen a profitable 24 percent growth.

Associations

• LiveMedia and Barista Coffee Company have a strategic alliance, where 200 Barista Lavazza outlets across the country will have LiveMedia screens on their premises.
• Barista Lavazza has tie-up with Visa to allow withdrawal of cash up to Rs.1000 in a day in all its outlets without any charges levied on the cardholders or any obligation to make purchases to get cash. As a part of this association, Barista Lavazza also offers 30 percent discounts on customized meal deals on all Visa debit card transactions.
• Virgin Mobile has partnered with Barista and contest2win.com for an interactive SMS contest. Having a cuppa across 50 Barista outlets in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, one stands a chance to win free return tickets for two to London on Virgin Atlantic Airlines as well as goodies while chatting with friends.
• ABN AMRO and Barista Coffee Company have jointly launched a credit card, "ABN AMRO Barista Credit Card", in which customers can avail discounts at its outlets.
• Barista Lavazza has formed an association with [Mattel]] Toys (India) Private Limited for the launch of the first edition of Barista Lavazza Cafe Scrabble 2010.
• Barista Lavazza continued their association with eDynamic for end-to-end Web branding, customer acquisition & engagement solution.

Bean-o-holic

Barista is the first coffee retailer in India to start a loyalty programme, Bean-o-holic. This programme was launched to attract more customers and retain the old ones.

Awards

Barista Lavazza has received the Times Group and Business Standard recognizes Barista Lavazza as the 'Brand of the year' in 2002

External links

• Official site of Barista Lavazza
• http://www.barista.co.in/users/experienceatespressobar.aspx