Homegrown Indian chain Cafe Coffee Day is girding up for the arrival of global coffee giant Starbucks.

Cafe Coffee Day, owned by conglomerate Amalgamated Bean Company, will implement an Rs350 crore (around US$70 million) expansion plan with 900 cafes to be opened over the next three years.

“In India, we are ahead by way of numbers and spread across cities. In terms of what customers actually like, we have seen them evolve over a period time, so we change whatever needs to be changed based on this evolution,” said Cafe Coffee Day COO Venu Madhav.

In a bid to attract more customers, Cafe Coffee Day plans a menu revamp and price reductions over the next six months.

“We’ve changed the look and feel of the products and the fillings, so they are much more international but contemporary to the Indian taste,” Madhav said.

Established in 1996, with headquarters in Karnataka and Bangalore, Cafe Coffee Day currently has around 1090 locations. Its menu includes hot coffees, cold coffees, hot teas, frosteas, doughnuts, brownies, sandwiches, cakes and sundaes.

GB