JOIN USITC Foods has forayed into the gourmet coffee market with the launch of its new product Sunbean Gourmet Coffee.
Announcing the launch at ITC Gardenia here on Tuesday, Divisional Chief Executive of ITC Foods Division, V L Rajesh, said, “We first launched Sunbean Gourmet Coffee at ITC Sonar in Kolkata, and we have been receiving good feedback from there. Following its launch here in Bengaluru, it would be launched across our luxury hotels by October. The product is eight years of our research and it’s available in two variants — Nicamalai and Panagiri.”
While Nicamalai is a fruity-sweet aromatic blend of beans from Nicaragua and Anamalai hills, Panagiri is a fragrant coffee with strong aroma, blended with mildly sweet Panamanian beans and intensely sweet flavoured Arabicas from Baba Budangiri Hills, he added. Only a few months ago, ITC forayed into the luxury chocolate business with the launch of Fabelle.
“Right now, our focus is on establishing Sunbean as a premium brand and only after that, we will go to the mass market,” he said. When asked about the size of the coffee industry in India, he said, “The approximate size is around Rs 1,700 crore. Of the total, Rs 1,350 crore is the instant coffee market.”
In addition to being served Sunbean Gourmet Coffee of their choice at all F&B outlets within the ITC Hotels chain, consumers can also buy ready-roasted coffee beans, priced at Rs 800 for 200g. “We want to focus on our existing categories and we will also be launching new variants in these categories,” he said.