In the footsteps of Pizza Hut, ‘Barista Lavazza’ too opens ‘only veg’ restaurants in Ahmedabad

June 16th, 2009 · 2 Comments

After Pizza Hut– one of the largest global retail chains of quick service restaurants– which taking into account sensitivities of its local customers, had opened its first “only vegetarian” outlet in Ahmedabad, it is now the turn of Barista Lavazza — the cafe chain owned by Italy’s Lavazza– to serve only vegetarian food in all its outlets across the city. Barista cafe chain, earlier owned by Tatas, was acquired a few years ago by Lavazza- an Italian global chain of cafe restaurants.

“We are not excluding non-vegetarians, we are including all those vegetarians who would not come to our outlet because we served non-vegetarian food. Besides, we believe in going with the sentiments of the place and our dip stick survey showed that this is what people wanted,” said Sanjay Countinho, Chief Operating Officer, while giving details of the change.In Ahmedabad, a large number of high-end customers, particularly those following the tenets of Jain religion, are extremely sensitive to taking the food prepared in mixed (Veg+ Non Veg) kitchens. Even, McDonald, another global retail chain of QSRs, has opened a restaurant outlet in the city that has two separate kitchen; one each for preparing veg and non-veg food items.

Barista Lavazza appears to be aggressive on expanding its chain in Gujarat. It plans to open 12 new company-owned restaurants at an average cost of Rs 50 lakhs each. Apart from the happening S G Highway of Ahmedabad, the retailer has identified Surat and Vapi among the possible locations for opening new cafe restaurants. Barista Lavazza is also planning to launch soft alcoholic drinks in its select Crème outlets, though it is not very keen on increasing its presence in malls, where there is uncertainty on footfalls. The retailer may also set up retail outlets in metro stations, airports and places where the human traffic is assured.

Tags: Brands/ Strategy · Consumers/ Behaviour · Expansion/ New Investment · Lifestyle Segment · MNC/ Foreign Owned · Restaurants · Retail Strategy · Specialty/ Concept stores

2 responses so far ↓

Dharnendra Doshi // Jun 17, 2009 at 9:35 am

I think it’s a good step. It should help to being in more veg clients into the fold.Even the biggest retailers have bitten dust across the world whenever they haven’t been able to localise their offerings.
Food prepared in mixed kitchen is a sensitive subject and i have personally seen many people avoiding such places. What would be important is how effectively they can communicate their initiatives.
Arup Bhanja // Jun 18, 2009 at 4:53 pm

Yes very true. I have had experience where widowed women did not taste the veg food in one occasion as it was also prepared in a kitchen where non-veg food was prepared.