Barista is among the coffee chain pioneers credited to popularising the coffee culture in a tea-drinking country like India. However, in its quest, barista has gone through a roller-coaster ride in its decades-long journey and has changed its ownership four times.
Currently Barista is India’s second-largest coffee chain operator with 350 outlets, after Café Coffee Day which has 1,384 outlets as of February 2023.
The coffee brand is also present in Maldives and Sri Lanka, where it is the largest coffee chain . In Sri Lanka, barista has been named the most popular service provider in the cafes and coffeehouses category for 2021.
The 23-year-old brand is now gearing up for its next phase of expansion and aims to reach the 500-store mark in India by 2024, according to Rajat Agrawal, chief executive officer, Barista.
Post-pandemic has seen a healthy growth rate at a double-digit like to like growth rate compared to before. Barista has also grown in terms of store count having added around 150 stores in the last three years.
