new delhi ukbased costa coffee is focusing on making its india outlets profitable rather than just increasing count said a top executive of the company what we have now come to know is that this business can be very profitable for us if we do the right things rather than chasing numbers we said to ourselves lets do all the corrections of either shutting down shops or relocating them or renovating them said virag joshi president ceo of devyani international which is the master franchise for costa coffee kfc and pizza hut in india rather than chasing numbers we thought let us open costa only at places where we see 100 profitable model for us advt good location is a must for us to open any new outlet he said the company which has touched a revenue of rs 100 crores in the current financial year had seen some turbulent times in the past in 2014 there were reports suggesting that costa coffee might end its exclusive franchisee arrangement with devyani international after the indian partner refused to commit more investments in a slowing economy to a business that did not turned to net profits till then since then the company which has just over 100 outlets in the country has shut down about 20 unprofitable stores the company is also relocating and renovating some stores which have the potential to do better joshi said the coffee chain was earlier going after a certain number of stores in a stipulated time as there was pressure from franchisers too to increase brand presence however things have changed as the international business has now also aligned to the vision of the indian partner he said they have also understood the indian market now and now they have understood that going after numbers is meaningless too there is no pressure of numbers on us now said joshi on expansion plans joshi said i cannot tell how many stores we are looking to open i do not have the answers i can only tell you after the year if we have opened 10 20 or 30 stores but what i can tell you now is that whatever stores we will open they will be profitable for us advt costa coffee operates around 30 stores at airports corporate houses and hospitals and according to joshi these locations will be the key for expansion of the brand in the future as they hold great potential for the business by varun jain et bureau published on feb 19 2016 at 0757 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others report join the community of 2m industry professionals subscribe to