Kalmane Coffee to create its estate brand

Kalmane Coffee, Chikmagalur-based 125-year old coffee plantation company, after concentrating on exports is now looking at creating a domestic estate coffee brand.

Addressing reporters here on Thursday, Avinash Prabhu, managing partner, Kalmane Coffee, said the company has come out with five blends for domestic sales as an estate coffee brand.

"For this we plan to create a brand through coffee bars in all Kalmane outlets and then position coffee beans for retail trade," he added.

The Kalmane group is a fourth generation coffee grower owning about 1,000 acres of coffee estate located in Chickmagalur district.

Kalmane Coffee so far has opened four retail stores -cum-coffee bars in Bangalore -- at the Forum Mall, Fab Mall in Basavangudi and at R T Nagar.

The fourth store in Jayanagar was opened on Wednesday and the group has plans to take it to 10 bars in two years.

"We want to grow this business through the concept of buyer becoming a part of the coffee selection process starting from the bean," said Avinash Prabhu.

For the domestic and retail retail trade, the company has developed five blends "" Bluegrass "" a blend of chicory and high grown coffee; Mysore Nuggets "" aroma filled sweetish flavour; Cantata "" a bitter sweet blend; Harmony "" pure arabica coffee with aroma and Crescendo "" a blend of arabica and robusta.

In the export market, the company has presence with estate coffee blends like Columbian, Costa Rican, Guatemalan, Ethiopian and Jamaican, said Dhiraj Prabhu, partner, Kalmane Coffee.

Through Kalmane Trading, the company exports about 400- 500 tonnes of coffee annually with domestic sale touching less than one tonne.