Tata Consumer Products steps up coffee play with premium offerings

Tata Consumer Products, a dominant player in the country’s tea segment, is coming up with a pipeline of innovations in the coffee segment to become one of the top players in the market in the next five years. The company has rolled out a premium range of customised coffee under Sonnets brand, eyeing the Rs 100 crore artisanal coffee market.

“The user can choose the roasting level, grounding and flavours of the coffee which gets delivered to the doorstep of the customer via our delivery channels. We are leveraging both premiumisation and home delivery trends through this launch,” said Puneet Das, President, Packaged Beverages, India & South Asia, Tata Consumer Products Limited. The coffee is produced in Tata Coffee-owned estates.

The consumer can choose his preferred roast type from between a light, medium and a dark roast option, and could also suit his brewing preference and opt for either a filter coffee or a French press grind. Microlots are special lots of coffee, selected for their high quality and unique flavour profiles. The current offerings include four microlots available in customisations across roast and grind levels and having distinctive aroma and flavour profiles.

The company will expand the offering to gourmet stores in metro cities as it scales up in the segment. The consumer products behemoth had in 2015 launched Tata Grand, an instant D2C coffee brand, which has seen a high double-digit yoy growth in India.

“Our ambition is to be seen as a serious coffee player just like we have an equity in the market with Tata Tea. We aim to have a sizable share in the market as we grow,” said Das. As the coffee culture evolves, the company will also evaluate new coffee variants such as green coffee in the country.

Despite being the sixth largest producer of coffee in the world, India is to still embrace a mass coffee culture. The D2C market is currently dominated by conglomerates such as HUL and Nestle in India. In the hot beverages segment, the coffee category would be a tenth of the Rs 26,000 crore tea market. “The Indian consumer is embracing a new wave of coffee. Our goal is to influence India’s coffee culture by introducing high quality Arabica coffee beans and make it the go-to choice for the well-travelled global Indian,” said Das.