Tata Starbucks to open first store by Oct-end in Mumbai

Appoints TAS officer Avani Saglani Davda as CEO

Indians will get their first taste of locally-brewed Starbucks coffee by end of October.

Global coffee house giant Starbucks alongwith joint venture partner Tata Global Beverages will open the first store at a Tata-owned property in South Mumbai. The store will be located the near the iconic Asiatic Library at Horniman Circle in Mumbai.

Tata Starbucks, the 50:50 joint venture company has also announced the appointment of Avani Saglani Davda as CEO. Davda is a Tata Administrative Services officer, who joined the group in 2002.

Davda in a select media interaction said that the company would open a series of stores in malls, hotels, offices and commercial complexes in Mumbai by the end of the 2012 calendar year. By early next year, the company would begin rolling out stores in Delhi-NCR. Davda did not specify how many stores would be opened in the two cities.

The menu would be tailor-made to suit the tastes and preferences of consumers in the cities, with emphasis on having a "unique dish in every city".

Davda declined to indicate which other cities the company would target after the initial rollout in Mumbai and Delhi. But the next destination, say people in the know, is likely to be Bangalore, which is considered a huge market for organised coffee chains.

Post the announcement, Tata Global Beverages was trading at Rs 137.20, up 4.06 per cent.