In this post I will be referring to Rupinder Ahluwalia’s post entitled ‘Starbucks is going to India!’, I will try to answer the questions he asked.

Starbucks will finally be coming to India by the end of October. The company, named Tata Starbucks, is a joint venture between the American Starbucks and the Indian Tata Global Beverages. A lot of Westernized coffee brands and shops already exist in India so we can wonder if Tata Starbucks will find its way in the market. Another issue is the current slow in India’s growth, which could lead the market to be less profitable. However, Starbucks is a worldwide know brand, which reflects the Western World and a certain quality of coffee.

The target market basically is educated young Indians, working or students who travel abroad and have seen or tried Starbucks in other countries. This can be considered as a competitive advantage.

We see more and more alliances between Western and Indian companies. Tata Starbucks is a 50:50 joint venture, which means that none of the two companies is taking over the other. It seems like Indian companies are getting more and more power over Western ones, as the takeover of the French steel company Arcelor by the Indian Mittal Steel in 2006 or the buyout of Jaguar cars by Tata in 2008 show.

Additional sources:

http://www.thehindu.com/business/companies/tata-starbucks-to-open-first-caf-by-endoctober/article3945405.ece