NEW DELHI: Think about going out for a cup of coffee, there are Starbucks, Costa Coffees and Cafe Coffee Days. But, none for a cup of tea, at least not before Chaayos came into existence.
Chaayos is a chain of 25 cafes that serve tea, custom-ised in 12,000 ways.
“Don’t be surprised. No one offers tea in a more personalised manner – be it ingredients, less or more milk, various flavours or mixing flavours,” said Raghav Verma, co-founder of Chaayos. It offers tea lovers flavours, such as, ‘hari mirch chai’ and ‘aam papad chai’. For a moment, Chaayos’ entry can be dismissed as a flash in the pan.
When Cafe Coffee Day opened its first cafe in 1996 on Brigade Road in Bangalore, no one thought two decades later it would have more than 1,500 cafes, making Rs. 1,326 crore.
But, Chaayos’ rise is no match for the coffee chains (India has more thar 2,500 coffee shops).
Verma throws some statistics An average Indian consumes two cups of tea every day, implying a domestic consumption of more than 900 million kg of tea.
Chaayos should be present at every tea drinking occasion- there is online delivery for homes and offices, packets of tea to brew at home, cafes for outings and hangouts, and Indian munchies as accompaniments. Online delivery is the fastest-growing segment at 40-50% a month. “Nobody has delivered tea globally, even Startbucks started delivering coffee recently” said Verma.
With an average order size of Rs. 200-300, every cafe operational ally breaks even in four months In 2016, Verma hopes to open in Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.