Carnation Hospitality buys Barista Coffee chain for Rs 100 crore

New Delhi: New Delhi-based Carnation Hospitality has acquired Barista Coffee for Rs 100 crore from Lavazza Spa, becoming the fourth owner of India's pioneer, yet struggling, coffee chain.

Lavazza has been looking to sell Barista for almost a year as the Italian group wanted to exit the business after it failed to turn around the lossmaking coffee chain.

Carnation, a unit of Haryanabased packaging company Rollatainers, earlier this year entered the food segment when it acquired restaurant chains Kylin and Sartoria. It is also bringing Jamie's Italian Restaurants to India through a franchise arrangement.

"We have recently expanded our food business and this is truly an exciting development for us. As part of our portfolio we are adding India's secondlargest coffee chain," Carnation director Sanjay Chhabra said.

Lavazza wasn't available for comment. Two people with direct knowledge of the matter said Rollatainers is owned by auto parts company Amtek Auto. Rollatainers' LinkedIn profile also calls it an Amtek group company.

Sources had told ET in July that Amtek was in talks with Lavazza to acquire Barista. However, Gaurav Jain, Amtek's director for mergers and acquisitions, had denied any such plan. The promising cafe market has over the years attracted global coffee titans including Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.

Technopak says there are 3,100 branded coffee outlets in India. These growth prospects had led Lavazza to purchase Barista in 2007 from serial entrepreneur Sivasankaran. It has since invested about Rs 240 crore in the coffee chain, including the acquisition cost.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.