According to Third Wave Coffee’s new CEO, Rajat Luthra, the company plans to open 50 new outlets in existing regions such as Bengaluru, Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR), Mumbai, and Hyderabad, as well as expand into new cities such as Chennai.
In his first interview since taking over, following the top-level restructuring in March, he told ET that the Westbridge Capital-backed speciality coffee chain is scaling up its roastery capacity threefold across offline retail channels, not limited to its own stores.
Luthra, who oversaw KFC India operations for more than a decade and is now collaborating closely with co-founder Sushant Goel as part of the transition plan, stated that the Bengaluru-based company has shown healthy growth in key indicators.
“We will continue to be a coffee-first brand. We should add at least 50 stores by the end of the financial year – that’s the minimum we are looking at. Besides our existing markets, we are looking at a couple of new markets like Chennai,” Luthra said. “There are so many cities around which are also closer to Bengaluru.”
Additionally, the business is seeking to expand its central roastery operations this year to triple capacity in order to meet additional demand from planned outlet growth and to supply other offline retail channels.
“Current roastery capacity͏ adequately serves our own stores. With new equipment secured and land ͏deals finalised for expan͏sion͏, constru͏ction will͏ com͏mence soon. ͏Subsequent͏ly, w͏e will aggressi͏vely market ͏our beans,” ͏Luthra said.
Third Wave Coffee completed a $35m investment round in September 2023 which valued the business at $150m. The coffee chain is part of a fast-growing scene of Indian coffee start-ups, including Blue Tokai Coffee Roasters, Subko Coffee and abCoffee, raising capital to fund outlet growth.
Additionally, several international coffee chains have scaled their footprints in India over the last 12 months. Starbucks and Costa Coffee both achieved record outlet growth in India last year to reach 421 and 179 stores respectively.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Tim Hortons now operates 30 sites in the country – a quarter of the way to its planned 120 stores by 2026 – while UK-based Pret A Manger has opened 16 outlets since debuting in Mumbai in April 2023.
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