Third Wave Coffee is aiming to achieve company-level break-even in the current financial year as the coffee chain is on an expansion spree and plans to open 100 new cafés this fiscal.
The Bengaluru-based coffee chain currently has over 220 stores across the country. The coffee-first QSR brand operates under COCO (company-owned-company-operated) model and does not have any plans to open stores through a franchise model in the near future.
“We are quite a bit positive as far as unit economics is concerned. We are well funded. So we are expanding our own stores at this point,” Third Wave Coffee CEO Rajat Luthra, told businessline.
“We definitely will open 100 stores during this financial year. We will always have enough funds available to us as and when it is required,” Luthra said.
The coffee chain has forayed into the East with the launch of three new cafés in Kolkata—two in Ballygunge and one in Salt Lake. For further strengthening its presence across the city, the company aims to add another five-six stores in Kolkata within the current financial year.
“In the East, it is not only Kolkata, we will also be looking at Guwahati, Ranchi, Patna and Bhubaneswar. So, these are the markets we definitely will be looking at in the near future,” the CEO said, adding around 60-70 per cent of the new stores, to be opened in FY27, would be launched in the existing cities the company operates, while the rest 30-40 per cent will come up in new markets.
“We will open two to three stores in each of the new markets. Kolkata has a major role in this as the city should have total stores between 10-12. And, in the remaining cities the company will open a couple of stores,” Luthra said.
In the last fiscal, Third Wave Coffee expanded into Ahmedabad, Agra, and strategic transit hubs such as the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway, while also deepening its presence across Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, and Mysuru.
Currently, the coffee chain has 64 stores in Bengaluru, 48 stores in Delhi NCR, 40 stores in Mumbai, 18 stores in Pune, 13 stores in Hyderabad, and eight stores in Chennai.
“At the store-level we are highly EBITDA positive, around 90 per cent of our stores are EBITDA positive. We are trying to break even at the company level this year (FY27). We are very close to it now,” Luthra said.
“We use Indian coffee, not importing any coffee from outside. As we are scaling up at present, it is helping us to navigate the cost,” he added. The company operates one of the largest roasteries in India.