Bangalore, Jan. 23 - Tata Tea Ltd., India's largest tea maker by volume, Wednesday said it has entered the beverage retail business.
The company, currently in the branded tea and tea extract businesses, aims to become a leader in the estimated INR480 billion beverage retail market.
"This (venture) is a transformational trigger that a tea company is using to break into the out-of-home beverage space," Tata Tea Executive Director Sangeeta Talwar told reporters at the launch of the company's first retail outlet.
The outlets will offer both tea and non-tea beverages and a range of snacks.
Talwar said the company plans to open more outlets across the country in the next five to seven years, but didn't say how many and how much the company plans to invest in the venture.
Oragnized players like Cafe Coffee Day, a unit of Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading, just have a 6% share of the total beverage retail market in India.