Starbucks opens 40 new coffee stores in India as KFC doubles down on women employment
INDIA – Tata Starbucks, a 50:50 joint venture between Tata Consumer Products Ltd and Starbucks Corporation, has continued its bullish expansion in India, venturing into 7 new cities and opening 40 new stores in its wake.
This fiscal year has been eventful for Tata Starbucks in terms of expansion plans and reaching customers in newer cities and locations.
In FY21, Starbucks opened stores in new cities such as Lucknow, Amritsar, Kochi, Ludhiana, Bhopal, Indore, and now Kanpur.
Kanpur becomes the 18th city in India and second city in Uttar Pradesh where Tata Starbucks has a presence, according to a statement from the company.
“We are very delighted to enter Kanpur and excited to serve the premium Starbucks experience to our customers in the city. Expanding our footprint further into Uttar Pradesh and opening our doors in Kanpur is a moment of great pride for us,” a company spokesperson said.
India continues to remain one of the fastest-growing markets for Starbucks globally, if the recent expansions are anything to go by,
The brand celebrated its eighth anniversary in India in October 2020 and crossed the 200th store mark.
Tata Starbucks had last year opened two new formats of stores in the country — drive-thru and all women stores.
KFC India doubled down on women employees
Meanwhile, US -based fast food chain KFC has announced plans to double the count of women employees at its restaurants in India to around 5,000 in the next three to four years.
According to a company official, the drive is in line with its diversity and inclusion initiatives in the country.
KFC India, which currently operates two all-women restaurants, is also looking at increasing the overall ratio of women employees to 40 per cent by 2024 from the current 30 per cent.
This is under the company’s ‘KFC Kshamata’ programme which is a focused effort towards creating more job opportunities for women by 2024.
KFC India Managing Director Samir Menon says that gender diversity at the company has grown organically.
“Between 2013-14 and pre-Covid, in those five or six years diversity in our restaurants, from a gender perspective, has grown from 7-8 per cent to around 30 per cent…that included both team members and leaders of restaurants,” Samir Menon said..
Additionally KFC India said it plans to double the footprint of Special KFCs — operated by hearing and speech impaired team members, by 2024.
It would also launch select, flagship Special KFCs across the country, that provide an elevated KFC experience for specially-abled team members as well as customers.
Under its KFC Kshamata programme, the brand aims to have 70 ‘Special KFCs’ by 2024, up from over 30 at present.
Overall, KFC India curently operates over 480 restaurants in more than 130 cities across the country.
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