1st May, 2023: What is the clash about? What is this new business Reliance is getting into? Read to know.
As companies increasingly bet on the coffee culture among young people in a tea-drinking country, Reliance Brands, which is backed by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is ready to compete with Tata Starbucks with the opening of the first Pret A Manger location in India.
The first shop was established at Mumbai's Bandra-Kurla complex (commonly referred to as BKC). In the first year of the franchisee collaboration between Reliance Brands Limited, a division of Reliance Retail, and the British brand, which was made public last year, a total of 10 "Pret A Manger" outlets are planned in India. The firm is excited to be establishing the first Pret store in India, according to Reliance Brands MD Darshan Mehta.
Pret A Manger, frequently referred to as Pret, is a German-owned British sandwich restaurant franchise brand with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It was established in 1983. Prêt à manger is French for "ready to eat." Pret had 434 stores in the UK as of December 2022, including 273 in London, as well as three "Veggie Prets" that only offered vegetarian and vegan meals.
Darshan Mehta said, “Freshness of ingredients, authenticity of recipes, and curiosity in processes define the new Indian consumer. Our partnership with Pret A Manger aims to tap into this curiosity with an offering that we can proudly say - ensures traceability of coffee beans as much as a zero additive approach to food.” Mehta has stated that the brand will concentrate on Indian airports. Over the next five years, up to 100 Pret A Manger stores are expected to open in India.
Tata Starbucks, the industry leader, has 275 Starbucks outlets spread over 30 cities. 50 new outlets were opened by the 50:50 Venture between Tata Consumer Products and the American coffee brand Starbucks in FY22, which was a record-breaking year for the business. Technically, Pret A Manger will eventually compete with Tata Starbucks. Risk exists for Starbucks' exorbitant prices. According to Pret A Manger's CEO Pano Christou, expanding to India has long been an ambition of the business, and the inauguration of the first location in Mumbai marked a significant turning point in those plans.
Recently, a number of coffee shops and brands opened up shop in India. Tim Hortons, a brand of coffee shops and bakeries in Canada, inaugurated two outlets in Delhi-NCR in August 2022. The company has plans to add 120 outlets in India within the course of three years, for a total expenditure of Rs 240 crore.
The culture of drinking coffee is not new to the nation. However, it has mostly only affected the southern region of the nation, since that is where most of the production takes place. In FY22, India consumed around 10 mkg (million kilograms) of coffee and 1,143.61 mkg of tea, according to information from the Tea and Coffee Boards of India.
