TeaTrail

Franchise News India, Franchise News,MUMBAI,Tea Trails, a chain of tea cafes in Mumbai, has raised $1 million (about Rs 6.6 crore) in its first round of funding from a group of HNIs led by Anil Matai, former CEO of pharmaceuticals business of Novartis IndiaBSE 0.44 %, Vikram Tandon, regional head, Middle East at Back Office Associates, and Shyam Sundar R, partner at Dubai-based CPM Consulting.

“The large part of the expansion strategy is based on franchise network development. This business model is asset-light with high ROI,” said Uday Mathur, co-founder, Tea Trails India. Launched in November 2013, the cafe chain plans to use the funds for its growth and expansion in focus markets even as it plans to open 250 outlets by 2018.

“Of this, 80% of the outlets will be through franchise and 20% will be company-owned. So, we are negotiating master franchise contracts in different regions like the NCR, Maharashtra, Pune, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka,” he said.

Mathur started Tea Trails after exiting his stake in the EuroKids International, a pre-school chain.

Tea Trails currently operates eight outlets in Mumbai. The startup plans to open 45 outlets across the country this year with initial focus on markets such as Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Vishakhapatnam, Delhi NCR and Ahmedabad. According to Mathur, each outlet takes an investment of about Rs 40 lakh.

Mathur said the company is targeting malls, commercial spaces and high streets to open its outlets. “We are also looking at smaller kiosk formats to be opened in food courts.”

Tea Trails also proposes to merchandise select blends of their teas that would be available at premium retail stores and niche online portals across India, besides retailing them at the existing Tea Trails outlets. The cafe chain currently offers about 80 varieties of teas in its outlets.

“India is the second largest tea consuming market in the world, but the Tea Cafe market is practically non- existent. So, we plan to cater to this latent demand and be the category creator,” Mathur explained.



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