Haldiram Bhujiawala has bought The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf India franchise from private equity fund Everstone Capital in a deal which, two people briefed on the matter said, cost it under Rs 100 crore.
The Kolkata-based company has also purchased the Gelato Italiano brand as part of the deal, Haldiram Bhujiawala’s chief executive, Manish Agarwal, told ET.
Agarwal said his company acquired a majority stake in Pan India Food Solutions, a holding company set up by Everstone Capital to house the coffee chain and ice cream parlour businesses. He did not reveal the financial terms. “We have acquired a total of 89 outlets as part of this deal. We plan to expand the coffee chain and ice cream business,” he said.
Everstone did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Pan India also owns brands like Spaghetti Kitchen and food courts Spoon and Foodtalk. Some of these brands are also part of the deal though Agarwal didn’t specify which ones.
The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf is a chain of coffee parlours that has around 1,000 outlets in its home market of the US. It opened its first outlet in India in 2008, in South Delhi’s Saket area, before expanding countrywide.
Over the past two years, Everstone has had to scale back expansion plans and shut down outlets of the coffee chain and Spaghetti Kitchen due to accumulating losses at Pan India, an industry executive said. Filings with the ROC show that Pan India Foods had ?50-crore sales in FY18, but was loss-making. Its liabilities exceeded assets, resulting in a negative net worth for the company, according to its auditors.
