Starbucks India Rival Blue Tokai Aims To Triple Store Count In Four Years

Parent Muhavra Enterprises Pvt., which operates 240 outlets across the country, eyes taking the count to 800 by fiscal year 2030, co-founder Matt Chitharanjan said in an interview. That includes about 120 stores planned in the current financial year to deepen its presence in major metros while expanding into newer cities such as Ahmedabad and Lucknow, he said.

"India is still fairly under-penetrated in terms of branded cafés," said Chitharanjan, who is also the chain's chief executive officer. "While it may seem from the outside that there's a lot of competition, there's still tons and tons of white space."

Besides Starbucks, Blue Tokai competes with Café Coffee Day, Barista and Third Wave Coffee.

Starbucks, which operates in India through a joint venture with Tata Consumer Products Ltd., plans to add up to 100 stores every year to its current network of over 500. The expansion spree reflects growing demand for premium coffee among India's affluent consumers, driven by wider availability through digital channels and quick-service chains.

Research firm IMARC Group projects the nation's café market - valued at $425 million in 2025 - to grow 11.14% annually to $1.15 billion by 2034.

Blue Tokai expects its revenue to grow more than 50% to 8 billion rupees ($93.9 million) this financial year, Chitharanjan said, after a near sevenfold surge over the past four years.

Backed by investors including Verlinvest, the company eyes an initial public offering within the next five to seven years to provide an eventual exit route to early investors, according to the co-founder. It will likely further raise 1.5 billion rupees in the next few years before it can fund its growth ambitions internally, he said.

The chain will open its first international store in Dubai next week.

The café business faces risks of supply-chain disruption, spike in coffee prices, and high employee and real estate expenses. Chitharanjan, who expects the company to turn profitable by March 2028, said a dense store network helps lower supply-chain and staffing costs.

"The advantage of coffee is that it's a very habitual thing," he said. "One of the reasons that people come to us is because they like the quality of the core beverage that we have, and that's kind of what they stick to."