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Starbucks India posts Rs 1,218 Cr revenue in FY24; losses surge 3.2X

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Starbucks India has emerged as the largest coffee chain in the country as the company left Coffee Cafe Day behind in terms of revenue during the fiscal year ending March 2024. However, the firm barely managed double digit growth in the said fiscal year and at the same time, its losses widened over three-fold. Tata Starbucks’ revenue from operations increased 12.05% to Rs 1,218 crore in FY24 from Rs 1,087 crore in FY23, its standalone annual financial statements filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show. Starbucks For background, Starbucks India is a joint venture between Starbucks Coffee Company and Tata Consumer Products Limited. Launched in 2012, Tata Starbucks now operates in over 390 stores across 54 Indian cities, with approximately 4,300 partners. Its nearest competitor Coffee Cafe Day’s revenue stood at Rs 1,013 crore in FY24. As of March 2024, it had 450 stores. Starbucks also competes with several new-age coffee startups including Blue Tokai, Rage Coffee, Third Wave Coffee Roasters, Slay Coffee, Sleepy Owl, and Seven Beans Co among several others. Coming to Tata Starbucks revenue, the sale of coffee and related products formed most of its revenue. The rest of the income came from the loyalty program called My Starbucks Rewards where the customers earn loyalty points (Stars). For a coffee-selling company, the procurement of coffee beans, and other related products accounted for 26% of the total expenditure. To the tune of scale, this cost increased 8.5% to Rs 343 crore in FY23. Its employee benefits, rent, electricity, advertisement cum promotion, royalty, transportation, and other overheads took the firm’s overall expenditure to Rs 1,320 crore in FY24 from Rs 1,140 crore in FY23. See TheKredible for the complete expense breakup. Along with flat scale, Starbucks India’s losses surged 3.2x to Rs 80 crore in FY24 from Rs 25 crore in FY23. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at 0.4% and 18%, respectively. On a unit level, the firm spent Rs 1.08 to earn a rupee in FY24. FY23-FY24 FY23 FY24 EBITDA Margin 19% 18% Expense/₹ of Op Revenue ₹1.05 ₹1.08 ROCE 3% 0.4% Coffee chains, by their very nature seek upscale locations, which means rental costs can be very high. Starbucks India, which is still in expansion mode with a possible target of 1000 stores by 2028, faces that challenge, besides the more obvious one of finding customers for its pricey offerings. Multiple startups encroaching in the same segment has not helped, as unlike the humble tea, coffee snobs are a very real thing, and many of the new upstarts have built a following accordingly. More than losses, Starbucks India will possibly be more focused on metrics like same store sales growth and footfalls for now, as its menu offerings have enough margins to deliver handsomely if footfalls increase significantly. The question is, will premium coffee find a deep enough market, or will it run up against the by now famously shallow middle class market?