Barista is changing its track: slashes prices; woos the youth

Our Corporate Bureau
30 May 2003

Mumbai: Barista Coffee Company, the coffee retail house jointly owned by the Times group and the Tatas, is changing track. For one, Barista is changing its positioning from a premium retail outlet to that of a hangout or a meeting place frequented by young people.

Company officials say this is because the nature of Barista''s clientele ranges from young college-goers to young professionals. "With such a profile affordability becomes an important issue."

In keeping with this, last month Barista cut prices of nearly all items in its menu card by 25 per cent. Now, a cup of standard cappuccino coffee cup at Barista is available for Rs 30, down from Rs 40 earlier, while cold coffee Frappe is available for Rs 40 per cup against Rs 55 earlier. Also Classic cold coffee is now cheaper by Rs 12 at Rs 33 a cup.

Apart from this, Barista has also introduced new low-priced beverages. The officials say these price cuts have resulted in a 15-per cent walk-ins at Barista''s outlets during the last one month.

In another change, Barista is diversifying its hot beverages menu and introducing several speciality teas. The reasoning undoubtedly is based on the fact that apart from South India all other parts of the country are mainly tea-consuming areas, and this step is expected to help the company expand its client base in the smaller towns of these regions.

Also, for the first time, Barista is seeking to expand through the franchisee route model and plans to enter B-class towns in the country and middle-class localities in the metros such as North and East Delhi. By 2005-06, Barista plans to have over 300 outlets across the country up from 130 at present.