‘Focus on increasing visibility in top-tier locations’

Costa Coffee, which has a store count of 200 across the country, continues to expand at a steady pace in the Indian market. In an exclusive interview, VINAY NAIR, vice-president, Costa Coffee, India and emerging markets, spoke in a video interview with Sharleen D'Souza on the healthy growth that the coffee market is witnessing in India. Edited excerpts:

What are your expansion plans for Costa Coffee as the coffee culture is picking up in the country?

Coffee, and more specifically, specialty coffee, is pretty much at a tipping point. If you look at the sheer number of new coffee players coming in, the expansion plans by everybody, and what we are seeing in terms of interest by consumers in all forms of coffee. India is reaching a tipping point. We've had a pretty good journey over the last couple of years. You've seen the numbers. We recently celebrated our 200th store in India, in Bangalore.

We are broadly excited by the opportunity we see in specialty coffee and in the Indian market. We have called out store numbers anywhere between 50 to 60 a year and are in line with the expansion we have done for the last couple of years. We have an appetite for more, provided we see opportunities shaping up. That's the broad view on expansion.