This IITian Left His Rs 1 Cr Petrochemical Job To Serve Quality Coffee To Indians
Indians are known for their love for tea. Popularly called chai, tea has been a way of life in India for generations.?
In contrast, the rest of the world runs on coffee. The average coffee consumption per person per day globally is estimated to be around 0.246 kilograms (about 1.6 cups) annually or about 0.0068 kilograms (about 50 milliliters) per day.
Coffee cultivation vs consumption in India
This is despite the fact that India is the sixth largest coffee producer in the world and it is grown in at least ten states in the country.
But as a drink, for the longest time, coffee's popularity was stuck in Southern India, and it was predominantly filter coffee.
Things started changing in India with the entry of international coffee chain brands and in recent years there has been an increase in coffee consumption among Indians.
How coffee is gaining popularity?
One of the biggest factors many believe is holding back more Indians from embracing coffee is the price, which is multiple times higher when compared to tea at most coffee chains.
A Mumbai-based startup wants to change this and make quality coffee affordable to every Indian.
abCoffee, which started operations in 2022 currently has nine outlets in Mumbai recently open its first in Delhi-NCR.
How abCoffee was started?
abCoffee?was founded by Abhijeet Anand, a graduate of IIT Dhanbad, who says he 'converted to coffee' while working abroad and wanted to bring the same experience back to India.
"Like most Indians, I was also used to drinking tea and never liked coffee. But things changed when I was working in Romania. Thanks to the quality of the coffee that is available in Europe and the prices they are offered at, I became a coffee person," Anand told?Indiatimes.
After he returned to India in early 2021, Anand said he was spending around Rs 25, 000 a month buying coffee. This made Anand, who came back to India with the aim to start his own?entrepreneurial venture to look at coffee from a business perspective.
From petroleum to coffee?
Before he fell in love with coffee, Anand, who was born in Bihar was working in the Petroleum industry.
A graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad in Petroleum Engineering, Anand draws an interesting link between oil and coffee.
"Oil and coffee look different. But oil is the most traded commodity in the world and coffee is the second. Oil runs nations, and coffee runs the people who run the nations," Anand said on a lighter note.
Once he decided that coffee was his next pitstop, Anand did an extensive study of the industry, visiting over 200 cafes across 20 cities in 12 states in India, in 14 months.
Why is coffee overpriced?
One of the biggest issues, Anand said he came across was how coffee was priced - around ?250-300 for a cup of cappuccino.
So, Anand said he made it among abCoffee's priorities to be affordable.
The coffee at abCoffee starts at ?77 - a fraction of the prices at other premium specialty coffee chains and offers all the classic blends like Americano, Latte, Flat White, Iced Latte, Irish Cold Coffee, etc on the menu.
"While coffee is still placed as a premium beverage in India, what I realised during my research is that a cup of coffee that is sold at around ?350 costs them just ?17. Coffee is not expensive, it is how it is placed in India. I saw a market gap and a huge opportunity to democratise coffee in India," Anand explained.
Brewing coffee revolution?in India?
While tea continues to be the favourite drink of Indians, Anand said coffee is catching up and industry data showed that more than 52 per cent of the people of the country drink at least one cup of coffee a day.
"India is on the cusp of a coffee revolution and the adoption has been very natural. With Gen Z, and the working generation coffee has become their drink of choice and has a direct impact on their productivity," he said.
Ensuring quality, from farm to cup
To ensure that customers get the best quality at affordable prices, abCoffee procures their green beans directly from plantations in Chikkamagaluru.?
"We at abCoffee that the farmers should get a fair price for their produce and buying directly from them will help ensure this. We are into a particular grade called specialty grade, which comes from a specific estate. So buying our beans directly from them makes sure that we are getting exactly what we are looking for," he said.
Even with the best-grade coffee, Anand said several steps have to be meticulously followed to brew and serve it fresh.
"Even if you buy the best beans, there are chances that the end product may not have the desired quality. From monitoring to storing there are more than 51 metrics that come in after the beans are grown in the plantations until the coffee reaches your cup. To ensure that our coffee is fresh, we blend and roast it to a particular profile. The beans served at our outlets are roasted within thirty days to retain their aroma and freshness," he said.
100 outlets in next twelve months
According to Anand abCoffee has a customer retention rate of over 60 per cent.
The past one year has been incredible and we had a month-on-month growth rate of 35 per cent. We are the highest-rated coffee company in Mumbai. Once a customer discovers us, we have been fortunate enough to have them come back. Our customer retention rate currently is 61 per cent, which means over six out of our ten customers have come back to us. It has been a great journey so far," he said.
After Mumbai, abCoffee is setting its eyes on Delhi, and in the next twelve months the company aims to scale up the number of company-owned-and-company-operated outlets to 100 across India.?
For more on news, sports and current affairs from around the world, please visit?Indiatimes News.
