India’s largest homegrown coffee chain Barista Coffee plans to expand its network to 800–900 outlets by 2030, with a strong focus on tier-II and tier-III towns, its Chief Executive Officer, Rajat Agrawal, said on Thursday.
The company, which recently inaugurated its 500th cafe in Patna, Bihar, is buoyed by the rising coffee culture among India’s youth, particularly in smaller towns where aspirations and disposable incomes are on the rise.
Besides Barista, a late entrant in the coffee vending machine segment, is also scaling its presence in the fast-growing segment and expects 10-fold growth in the next 5 years.
1 January 2026
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This new business vertical, in which Barista Coffee entered two years back, is a "big focus area" for the company, he said, adding the company has "encouraging response" from its institutional customers.
"Today, we have installed 500 (vending) machines. There is a huge growth path, and we are looking to have a 10x growth in this network in the next 5 years. So, we are looking at about 5,000 machines in the next 5 years," Agrawal told PTI.
When asked about the growth strategy, he said that over the last 3-4 years, Barista has been more focused on getting into smaller tier II and III cities, where it sees better yields and earning profiles are much better.
Moreover, earning profiles are much better in those small cities as the store rentals are in check and the overall cost of operating is lower, he said.
As per its expansion plan, Barista will continue to add 50 to 60 outlets every year, which will be a mix of COCO (Company-Owned, Company-Operated) and FOFO (Franchise-Owned, Franchise-Operated) model.
"In the next 5 years, we are easily looking at going to about 800-900 stores. We are very confident in growing. We open about 50-60 outlets a year through company-owned and franchise networks. So, 800-900 stores in the next 4 years is quite doable," he said.
The company is chasing a profitable growth strategy.
"That is why we have taken the route where we have also expanded beyond metros into tier-II & III," said Agrawal.
In key metro markets, such as Delhi NCR, Barista has 80-plus stores.
"We have a large presence in Bombay. In Bengaluru, we are working on about 7-8 stores. In Calcutta, we have about 5-6 stores. We are pretty much there in all the metros. But mojo for the brand has been pretty much going beyond metros," he added.
According to Agrawal, the Indian coffee opportunity is increasing at large.
"Today, it's about 6,000 crore in terms of the cafe chain as an industry, which is growing at a 10-12 per cent CAGR. So, the overall market sizing is improving, and the density of coffee consumption is increasing," he said.
The company expects sales of Rs 400 crore in FY26 at the network level, which includes earnings from its franchise also.
