Vending a winning brew
04 July 2006
| After emerging as the market leader in three of the four southern states, Fresh and Honest now plans to capture the coffee market in Andhra Pradesh. Venkatachari Jagannathan reports. |
Chennai: Tucked away from the hustle of Chennai's Dr Radhakrishnan Salai, is the headquarters of the Rs80-crore Fresh and Honest Café Limited. Here its CEO, R Shivashankar (41), is brewing new plans for his hot beverage vending machines that should quickly set the cash registers ringing.
Till recently a company selling beverages, Fresh and Honest, a part of the Sterling group, has now added noodles and corn flakes to its product basket by signing up deals with Indo Nissan Foods Limited (makers of Top Ramen noodles) and Kellogg's. "We added these two products on the basis of feedback from our corporate clients," he points out.
He is on the lookout for other beverages that could be made with hot water / milk and talks are on with Nestle for sourcing soup powders. Fresh and Honest at present imports the dehydrated soup powder and local sourcing would help to ease the price burden on the end consumer. "We wish to keep the retail prices of all that we sell within Rs10. Right now our soup retails at Rs12 per cup; we are looking at a retail price of Rs6 to 7 per cup."
Fresh and Honest imports soup powder and Swiss chocolate powder from two Swiss companies Haco and Domaco respectively. The coffee bean, dip tea packs, milk and sugar are sourced within India. The coffee bean is sourced from Chikmagalur, Karnataka. Café Coffee Day is a division of Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Limited. Georgia, according to industry officials also sources coffee bean at Coffee Board auctions.
Apart from selling coffee and tea, Fresh and Honest also sells at all its vending machine installations hot Swiss chocolate, milk shakes and vegetable soup.
