Gloria Jean’s Coffee Chain is operating in India through a master Franchisee – Landmark Group company, CityMax. In order to help CityMax expand Gloria Jean’s presence, the latter is setting up a Bean Roasting unit near Bangalore to avoid the 112% import duty on coffee beans and thus able to help its franchisee compete with CCD and other outlets.
Gloria Jeans differentiates itself by offering 30-40% more coffee per serving than its competitors in India. It positions itself as a lifestyle product for the 25-40 age group and has seen the proportion of its repeat customers in India clocking 10-15% higher than the other markets.
Mr. Nabi Saleh, Chairman of Gloria Jean’s Coffees International, said
We are committed to this rapidly growing market and will set up a $10-15 million roasting facility in Bangalore by 2011 that will not only meet the local demand but also enable us to route the surplus as exports to the Middle East and Asia.
Citymax President Sundararajan Rajagopal said,
We will set up 20 stores in South India in the next fiscal across the high street and mall format. The company will open 14 stores in Bangalore and three each in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Citymax expects the coffee chain vertical to contribute about 20% of its overall turnover in 2009-10
CityMax wants to establish a footprint of 250 coffee outlets in the next 10 years from the present 5 with an investment of over Rs 100 cr.
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