Coffee chain Starbucks Coffee, which operates in India through a joint venture with Tata Consumer Products has reported a 371 percent growth in its first quarter, however, this is on a low base.

In the month of June, revenues were 39 percent lower as compared to the previous quarter. CNBC-TV18 spoke to Sushant Dash, CEO of Tata Starbucks to discuss earnings fine print and business recovery.

On store opening target Dash said, “We are cash positive, we continue to invest. In fact, our expansion plan is on target. Last year we opened 39 new stores, we got into seven new markets, which was actually the highest number of store opening in our single year. We will continue to invest and continue to grow and expand this year also.”

He added, “While I will not be able to share the exact numbers on opening new stores, I will say that as I said last year, we did open 39 stores, which was the highest in one single year and went to seven cities. We will keep the momentum up. We will continue to expand steadily, but also be aggressive in terms of the number of stores.”

On recovery in business Dash said, “As the lockdown eases off, and more stores open, we are seeing a steady recovery. In fact, the recovery after the second wave and the opening up has been much better, I would say, than the recovery that we saw last year. So good progress on that. We are seeing both dine-ins and delivery, growing and holding steady. So good news on that front.”

“I would say that the recovery numbers are good. We are nearly at the pre-COVID numbers in the month of July, and the same trend holds in the month of August. So Q2, we are looking at number which will be quite near to the pre-COVID numbers in terms of the revenues,” he added.

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(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)