Coffee Day brews expansion plans

Coffee Day Fresh 'n Ground, the coffee powder retail store chain of the Bangalore-based Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company (ABC), has chalked out major expansion plans for Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The company plans to increase its retail outlets in the south to over 400 by the middle of next year from the current level of 340, besides launching Coffee Online initiative in the next three months.

Announcing the formal launch of the company's new brand identity aimed at giving a distinct edge to the brand in the unorganised loose coffee powder segment, C J Jayanth, the head of the retail chain division, said that the company had been offering 22 blends of coffee powder, developed through in-house R&D efforts.

"The value proposition of the retail outlets is that we have been offering premium quality coffee at affordable prices. The product has the freshness since shelf stocks at the outlets are not older than 5 days. We plan to reduce it to 3 days by further strengthening our supply chain management," he said.

The company expects to have a presence in almost every district of the southern states by the next year-end.

Jayanth said that the target was to reach to reach out to over 4 lakh customers a month. To woo them, the company has launched a customer appreciation programme whereby they could collect reward points on purchases and redeem them for a wide range of gifts.

The company has introduced a plastic card for this purpose with a membership fee of Rs 20. Each participant of the reward programme would get a free personnel accident insurance cover for Rs 1 lakh in the first year.

"We are getting good response in AP. Currently we have 82 outlets in Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and some districts, serving one lakh homes a month. The number of retail outlets in the state will be increased 110 during next year," Jayanth said.