Australia’s coffee major Di Bella Coffee to foray into India

Australia's premium coffee company Di Bella Coffee is queuing up to enter India's USD 441 million  cafe chain business that has established retailers like Cafe Coffee Day, Costa Coffee and Barista Lavazza. Di Bella is likely to open as many as six outlets in Mumbai by January 2012, which will be followed by expansion in Delhi and Hyderabad.

Founded in 2002 in Brisbane, the company runs over 1,242 wholesale and retail outlets in Australia, New Zealand and China, and India will be its next aggressive international foray, Rahul Leekha, General Manager – operations, Di Bella Coffee India, said. He, however, declined to comment on investments made in India, but said the coffee chain business in India is growing by 40 per cent.

The Indian entity, Di Bella Coffee India, has been set up under licence agreement by Sachin Sabharwal who is part of Di Bella coffee business in Australia along with another Indian director whose identity is not disclosed.