The first franchise outlet of The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (CBTL) in India opened at Elante, the largest Mall of Chandigarh.
Operations Head, CBTL (India), Amit Maheshwari told media persons that “CBTL has ambitious plans for Punjab region and in next few months we would open outlets at Ludhiana and Jalandhar which have people with disposable income and exposure to international brands”.
Both these outlets will come in franchise mode.
He said that the organized Indian coffee market today stood at Rs 1000 crores with immense growth prospectus. “The CBTL grew at about 8 per cent during 2008-2009 but it grew by 12 per cent next year in 2010 and by 2011-12, the growth momentum had touched 35 per cent”, he informed.
The company has over 1000 outlets in 29 countries and in India it has so far 26 outlets including 11 in Mumbai and 6 in Delhi and plans to add another 12-15 in next one year.
Maheshwari claimed that CBTL sources coffee and tea leaves direct from the best plantations including rare Jamaican blue mountain coffee beans and the Jasmine dragon phoenix pearl and various exotic teas from Earl Grey to Japanese cherry green tea.
The Chandigarh franchise has been taken by two young entrepreneurs Vikram Nagpal and Ankit Ahuja, who are making forays into burgeoning hospitality industry with the launch this first franchise outlet of CBTL.