650 crore Blue Tokai is taking India's 4000 crore coffee market under control. The company is progressing with an annual revenue of 130 crores. Before knowing about the success of Blue Tokai, you need to know about the coffee market.
After water, coffee is the most consumed drink in the world. Coffee is one of the top ten most traded commodities. There is even an interesting story about coffee in Arab Asian countries that in the past, the only reason women could give for separation from their husbands was because the husband did not like coffee, this story proves the importance of coffee since ancient times, although it is a myth. It is important to know about three major changes in coffee marketing during three periods. Coffee began to be marketed as a product in the 1800s. It was a time when people were becoming aware of the kick that caffeine provides. There were no brands at this time.
Years later, in 1971, big companies like Starbucks rebranded the product called coffee and started cafes. Along with this, companies have introduced many value added coffees like Frappuccino and Cappuccino by making many changes in the coffee.
The third major change occurred when people increasingly wanted to know about the coffee they were drinking. Consumers began to worry about where the coffee they were drinking came from, whether the coffee beans were fresh, and whether they matched the flavor they wanted. And that's how specialty coffees started to become popular. Brands that can provide coffee in the flavor and quality they want have become popular. The Specialty Coffee Association of America gives this type of specialty coffee a score of 80 out of 100.
But in the Indian market these changes started very slowly. In 2011, when the world was in the third phase, the second phase was just beginning in India. That is the stage when cafes were becoming popular. India's coffee market is divided into two categories. One is home-brewed coffee, which is mostly made with instant coffee powder, and brands like Bru Nescafe are popular. Even today 70% of the coffee market is held by such instant coffee powders. Second is coffee from cafes. Cafe Coffee Day held 50 percent of the cafe market. They had 1200 outlets across the country. In 2012, Tata-backed Starbucks entered the Indian market. The specialty of Starbucks was the premium coffee experience. There was no specialty coffee category in the Indian market.
In 2012, Matt, the founder of Blue Tokai, arrived in India. He was born and raised in America. He came to India for a job in Chennai. Although his parents, who were residents of Chennai, were well aware of the filter coffee culture there, Matt, an American-born and raised premium coffee drinker, did not find the coffee available in India to be satisfactory. Matt recognized the lack of specialty coffees in the market. That's how Matt quits his high-paying job and starts Blue Tokai with his wife Namrata.
What started as a small venture at their home in Delhi today has grown into a business with over 100 outlets across the country. Their philosophy was very simple that if a product that you like the most as a consumer is not available in the market, you should start making it available yourself.
Now let's understand the 3 success secrets of Blue Toka in detail. The first of these is their very high quality. Matt, the founder, is someone who has researched and learned a lot about coffees. That is why he used only 100% Arabica coffee beans. These are selected as the best coffee beans in the world. They are also ready to deliver freshly roasted coffee to people's homes. Roasting is just as important as the beans when it comes to coffee. Roasting is the process of roasting coffee beans at different temperatures for the desired flavor. Even if you have the best quality beans, if the roasting is not done properly, it will affect its effectiveness. For example, if you drink coffee that has been brewed for four weeks after it has been roasted, the flavor will be greatly affected. What they did to meet the four-week challenge was to roast the coffee only after people ordered it. There was no one who did this at that time. The couple travels across India and visits various farms to ensure the quality of the coffee beans. But few people know that they come from inside a fruit like cherry. There are many factors affecting its quality like altitude climate and many more. They visit each farm to make sure everything is good. It is for this reason that large companies like Starbucks stay away from specialty coffees.
But since Matt was starting from India, things were a little easier for him. Because India is one of the countries that get the highest quality coffee beans. India is the eighth largest producer of coffee in the world. But 70% of the coffee produced in Indian coffee plantations is still exported. This is where Blue Tokai came in between Indian farmers and exporters. 96% of India's coffee production takes place in the three states Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka. They presented a long-lasting partnership to the farmers by telling them that they can go to these places and give them a better price than the exporters, put the name of the estate on each packet of coffee pods, and educate them on how to produce the best quality coffee. Although it took some time, the farmers were ready for this. This is how Blue Tokai's best quality coffee beans that we see today started to become available.
Their second secret to success is their ability to maintain relationships. They maintained good relations not only with customers but also with supplies. The biggest feature of Blue Tokai is their transparency. Most of the coffee farmers in India are smallholder farmers. They are completely dependent on exporters for farming. No one knows such small farmers. This is where Blue Tokai started putting the name of the farm that produced it i.e. the farmer on every single packet of coffee. It may sound like a small thing but it is very beneficial for long term partnership. Farmers have more demand like this. Because consumers can know where and who makes their favorite coffee beans. A big reason for its success was that their customers are young adults between the ages of 27 and 35. These young people are very keen to know about the society they live in and the food they eat. Not only this, Blue Tokay has also taken the initiative to educate people on how to drink coffee properly. Because of Blue Tokay, a large number of people in the country have come to love specialty coffees. If you go to Blue Toca's website, you will find all the information you need about coffee, how to prepare it, how to drink it and so on. That is, the company itself provides all the information to the customers, such as how sweet, how bitter, and how hot they should drink the coffee they buy. Specialty coffees are made using a special type of equipment. A device that pours hot water over the coffee beans so that the flavor is mixed with the water and the water drips down. But the company realized that the idea of a new device for making coffee was not viable for Indian consumers and did something else. They told Indian consumers that they could do the same brewing process at home using the same strainers used to make tea. It was a huge success. They also launched a product called Easy Pork Coffee that requires no equipment. This is how Blue Talky solved the problem of accessibility.
The third secret to their success is appropriate expansion. Basically Blue Tokai is a coffee brand and not a cafe brand. You will notice that Blue Tokai has very few cafes. Although they have grown a lot, they have not opened outlets in every city. This is because they only target users on Tier 1 sites. Because Blue Tokai is a premium brand. Hence they used not only D2C online model but also omni channel from the beginning. They are aiming to open 80 new outlets every year. This is a huge number as the outlets are opening only in the top cities of the country. Currently 60% of revenue comes from these cafes. Because of this, corporate businesses are also increasingly trusting Blue Tokai. This belief is very useful when entering the B2B model. About 50 percent of their revenue outside the cafe comes from B2B. Blue Tokai grew from a small venture started in their home to a 650 crore business by following these three success secrets.
തങ്ങളുടെ വീട്ടിൽ ആരംഭിച്ച ഒരു ചെറിയ സംരംഭത്തിൽ നിന്നും 650 കോടി മൂല്യമുള്ള ബിസിനസിലേക്ക് ബ്ലൂ ടോക്കയ് വളർന്നത് ഈ മൂന്ന് വിജയരഹസ്യങ്ങൾ പിന്തുടർന്ന് കൊണ്ടാണ്.
