SLN Coffee has rolled out ‘Levista’ brand of instant coffee in a bid to achieve a topline of ₹1,100 crore in three years, according to a top executive.
“We are rolling out Levista brand of instant coffee in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,” said N. Sathappan, managing director, SLN Coffee Pvt. Ltd, a Coorg-based firm. “This will be followed by its roll out in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and rest of the country.”
According to him, the market size for instant coffee is 21,000 tonnes valued at ₹2,100 crore. It has been growing at 10-11% year-on-year. The segment is mainly dominated by Continental and Nestle. “We have been supplying quality green coffee to several international firms. But now, we are entering on our own. Our idea is to capture 5% of market share [in instant coffee] in the next three years and hit a topline of ₹1,100 crore,” he said.
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The six-decade-old firm has been running coffee plantations for more than 40 years, exporting green coffee for more than 20 years. It entered the instant coffee segment almost 10 years ago. SLN Group boasts of a turnover of ₹1,000 crore of which ₹800 crore is from coffee business. It is also present in hospitality, real estate, education and timber segments.
“Today, we are the third largest coffee exporter in the country and number one in overall coffee market by volume. We have 300 acres of land. We process 50,000 tonnes of coffee beans in three factories, of which 30,000 tonnes are exported,” he said.
SLN Coffee has targeted to achieve ₹100 crore in ‘Levista’ sales in three years. The brand may be taken to international markets during 2019. In three years, the brand would be available throughout India.
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Queried about Levista’s foray into Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, N. Vishwanathan, director, SLN Coffee said to start with, Levista would be available in Chennai and 20 cities in Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru and 20 cities in Karnataka in 30,000 and 25,000 outlets respectively.
Plans are underway to open company-owned coffee outlet in Kushalnagar, Coorg soon, followed by three to four outlets in Karnataka. Each outlet would entail an investment of ₹1 crore to ₹1.5 crore each respectively.