CCL Products launches Continental Coffee brand in domestic market

With the launch of multiple products in both instant and filter coffee categories in different sizes and across different price points, the company hopes to double the revenues

Andhra Pradesh-based private label instant coffee maker CCL Products Limited, which earns 93 per cent of its revenues by exporting over 250 brands globally, today formally announced the launch of its own Continental Coffee brands in the domestic market.

With the launch of multiple products in both, instant and filter coffee categories in different sizes and price points, the company hopes to double its India revenues within the next few years. The Indian market is currently dominated by MNC brands such as Nestle's Bru.

"The stickiness attached to coffee, due to which consumers do not try out other brands so easily and replace the brand they;ve been using for decades, is a real challenge for us. We are hoping to overcome this challenge by adopting suitable marketing strategies targeting millennials," CCL Products managing director Challa Srishant said.

India contributes a minuscule 7 per cent to CCL Products' top-line, which stood at Rs 1,084 crore in the last financial year. It now aims to grow Indian business through its own product brand and expanding its marketing footprint first in the South and subsequently into other parts of the country, according to the company management.

India's instant coffee market is pegged at Rs 2,000 crore where annually around 15,000 tonne of instant coffee is consumed  while the filter coffee market, which is almost entirely concentrated in South India, has a size of another Rs 500 crore.

Claimed to be the world's largest private label instant coffee manufacturer, CCL Products currently has a manufacturing capacity to produce 35,000 tonnes of instant coffee of different kinds and blends, mostly located in India. It owns two plants, one each in Vietnam and Switzerland. 

The company is planning to invest $8 million to expand the capacity of its Vietnam plant. Another $12 million is being spent on the Chittoor EoU unit's packaging division in Andhra Pradesh.