Rahul Aggarwal, CEO & Founder, Coffeeza: We would like to become the most renowned single-serve gourmet coffee brand in the country

The café culture in the country is booming. The large number of cafés across cities show the potential demand café-style beverages have in the future. Rahul Aggarwal, CEO & Founder, Coffeeza explains how innovation and convenience can blend to create new ways of enjoying coffee with ease. In a conversation with WOH News, he tells Suchitra C about convenient coffee brew options will be game changer, allowing people to enjoy coffee from the comfort of one’s home or office, while aiming at aggressively tapping the HoReCa segment.

Our PM is very keenly boosting the ‘Vocal for Local’ initiative. Where do you see Coffeeza, for its coffee as well as equipment, leveraging that aspect to market its proposition, in India and offshore?

The initial journey of Coffeeza began with importing the best blends of coffee capsules from Italy. However, going forward we have plans of also producing capsules in India and souring local homegrown coffee from the best coffee plantations in the country. This is something we are going to be working on for the next couple of months. India is home to some of the best coffee produced and we can’t wait to create and offer these homegrown blends to our customers.

What is the market potential currently in India for innovative coffee capsules? Although traditional coffee making is still popular, do you think it has the potential to be the game changer in the market?

Currently there is no alternative solution that conveniently allows lovers of café-style coffee to enjoy beverages such as cappuccino, espresso, latte and so on, at home. They either have to visit a café, which is very inconvenient for those who have round-the-clock cravings, or use traditional brewing methods that take a lot of time and effort, and have their own challenges (e.g., coffee grounds losing freshness).

Talking about potential, if you look at the café culture in the country, it is booming. The large number of cafés that have opened across cities just give one an idea of what potential demand café-style beverages have in the future, and to be able to conveniently brew the same beverages from the comfort of one’s home or office is a game changer in itself.

Coffeeza promises to make indulgence easier for coffee lovers—be it at home or office. What are your plans to tap the luxury hotels and restaurants segments where your products are likely the apt choices?

Up until now, our focus has been primarily e-commerce; however, this year, we plan to aggressively go after the HoReCa segment. We avoided that in 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic had struck, but as restrictions get eased gradually, we feel better positioned to target the offline segments soon.

On the products side, the Finero Next Capsule Coffee Machine is a great addition for any hotel room. It has a very sleek and compact design, fits anywhere, is easy to use and can enhance the look of any space in which it is placed. Together with our 6 premium Italian coffee capsule blends, we believe our products are well suited for HoReCa.

Where would you like Coffeeza to be in the next five years? How did the pandemic affect the overall plans and what stance have you taken to move forward in 2021?

In five years, we would like Coffeeza to become the most renowned single-serve gourmet coffee brand in the country, with a wider range of products, amassing a larger market share in both India and overseas markets. Furthermore, in addition to e-commerce marketplaces, we would like to foray deeper into offline channels as well.

The pandemic disrupted our supply chain, as currently both our coffee capsules and machines are imported into India. Ports were shut, and we faced inventory shortages for quite some time and product launches got delayed. However, this experience taught us a lot. It gave us time to listen to our customers, work on new product requirements, and strengthen our supply chain. This year, our supply chain is stronger than ever, and inventories have been aligned to support our aggressive sales stance for 2021, which include some exciting new launches.

 Where do you think Coffeeza scores over other alternatives/competitors in the market?

Unlike other coffee players in India, Coffeeza’s machines and capsules are focussed on addressing the problem faced by gourmet coffee lovers by enabling them to brew café-style beverages like Espresso, Cappuccino, Latte and more within seconds in the comfort of their homes and offices, making the daily coffee ritual a breeze.

Most of the other brewing methods available are either complicated, time-consuming, require some basic brewing skills or and can just be plain messy. Coffeeza allows you to brew the same beverages with convenience by bringing together technology (in the form of easy-to-use machines) and artisanal coffee. One can enjoy a freshly brewed cup of coffee at the touch of your fingertips. Furthermore, the moment you open a bag of ground coffee and expose the coffee; it starts losing its freshness and hence, there’s the shelf-life problem. Coffeeza’s capsules have a special design that keeps coffee fresh for up to 24 months, and each capsule is perfect for one serving; hence, there is no hassle to measure the grounds as well.

Tell us something about new launches. How do you think it/they would revolutionise the coffee-related businesses in India?

We recently launched three new coffee capsules: Cremoso, Forte and our first single-origin coffee Ethiopia along with the new Finero Next Capsule Coffee Machine in February. The crux of all our products is convenience; however, the brand also aims to provide best-in-class products to coffee lovers looking for a wide range of flavour profiles. That is why we have a total of six coffee capsule blends now, and working towards adding more.

The Finero Next Capsule Coffee Machine is designed to be a notch above its predecessor, with a trendier look, better brewing quality and performance. The next coffee machine which will be launched in April, will be a first of its kind in India. And as mentioned, we plan to introduce Indian coffee capsules in the near future.

The demand for café-style coffee will keep increasing. With growing expeditious lifestyles which work on clock-hands, the need for convenient options to enjoy these beverages will grow. Coffeeza is already paving a modern way to prepare and enjoy great-tasting coffee that is convenient and saves time.

What measures are you taking to make Coffeeza more visible to its customers and tap potential customers in hotels and F&B sector?

We are really working on boosting our marketing activities to become more aggressive on online and offline channels. Consumers will be able to see more of our products in modern trade this year. As mentioned earlier, for HoReCa we are building an offline team that will solely focus on tapping businesses in this sector.