Barista to focus on customer acquisition with ''Bean-o-holic''

Mumbai, Feb 13 (PTI) In a bid to attract morecustomers and retain the current ones, coffee retail chainBarista Lavazza will launch a loyalty programme mid next week,a top company executive has said.

Barista is the first coffee retailer in the country tostart a loyalty programme, ''Bean-o-holic, even as the modernretailers in FMCG and apparel space and quick servicerestaurants (QSR) already use such cards to boost their sales.

"We are launching the Bean-o-holic initiative bymid next week. The cards, like any other loyalty cardprogramme, is aimed at customer acquisition and retainingthem," Barista CEO Sanjay Coutinho told PTI here.

The company, a part of Italian coffee major Lavazza,will initially the launch the scheme in Delhi-NCR region androll-out the service on a pan-India level by April, he said.

Barista runs around 200-odd outlets, a sizeable chunkof them in the Delhi-NCR region. However, the company has noplans to add new outlets this year, Coutinho said.

Loyalty programmes, though a new concept in India,have started picking up in the last few years with the growthof modern retail where customer retention is a challenge

Barista is focusing on the same to both attract newcustomers and boost sales, the Chief Executive officer said.

For Barista, the initiative assumes significance, asthe Indian market is witnessing a stiff competition with firmssuch as Tata''s entering the market with global coffee majorStarbucks that runs 16,000 outlets across 50 countries.

There are also major players like Cafe Coffee Day thatruns 1,040 outlets the country. In the premium segment isCosta Coffee, which is also ramping up its network.