Starbucks is now a PAN India brand: Sushant Dash

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

«Inflation is a reality. I think inflation has been a reality for the last 18 to 24 months for all businesses. But I think that has not impacted us as much,» says Sushant Dash, CEO, Tata Starbucks.Has inflation impacted your business?Inflation is a reality.

I think inflation has been a reality for the last 18 to 24 months for all businesses. But I think that has not impacted us as much. If I look at our business growth and we came out of a good year last year when we crossed a Rs 1000 crores, we grew 70% plus, we declared profit for the first time at an EBIT level and we opened 70 odd stores.

So obviously the numbers speak for themselves in some ways and I think yes so inflation has not been that big a factor for us.You are talking about really catering to India and you guys have moved a little bit more from the metros to some of the smaller towns Jalandhar, Calicut etc. Is that a very conscious strategy? What is the expansion plan into some of the smaller towns? Is that going to be the road path ahead?So yes, I think I can truly say that Starbucks is now a PAN India brand. If I actually look at it, we are now in 41 towns or cities.

So we are well beyond the metros and if you look at the last 24 months, I think we have opened nearly in 30 new cities. So we are there. You name it as you said whether it is the markets in Punjab or Kerala, Bhubaneswar, Siliguri, Guwahati, you name it we are there and we will continue to do that.

We will continue to expand into smaller markets. We are amazed by the kind of love that the brand has and the kind of numbers that we are doing in these markets. But having said that, that does not mean that we will only expand in those markets.