Coffee chain Tata Starbucks has partnered homegrown plant-based foods company Imagine Meats to serve vegan food in key cities, adding to the growing number of restaurant chains that are expanding their plant-based meat offerings in the country.
Under the partnership, Starbucks sell vegan sausage croissant rolls, vegan hummus kebab wraps and vegan croissant buns in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Gurugram, Jaipur, Goa, Kolkata, Noida and Pune.
Imagine Meats is backed by Bollywood celebrity couple Genelia and Ritesh Deshmukh, who launched the plant-based meat foods venture in 2020.
Sushant Dash, chief executive officer, Tata Starbucks, said the market for such products in India, though still small, is estimated at ₹200 to 300 crore. For the coffee chain that has over 270 outlets in India, addition of plant-based alternatives is aimed at addressing diverse consumer needs. “It is about giving consumers the choice and about catering to the segment which is growing,” Dash said in an interview.
Plant-based meat has found favour among consumers looking for meat alternatives.
India too has witnessed a surge of companies offering such products, and restaurants are experimenting with such offerings. In 2020—Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd that operates the Domino’s pizza chain in India launched a pizza made from plant-based proteins which it said was 100% vegetarian with sensory properties of chicken.
To be sure, in several key markets such as China, Canada, and the US, Starbucks has partnered with Beyond Meat to introduce plant-based offerings. In 2020, Starbucks China partnered Beyond Meat as part of the latter’s entry into the Chinese mainland.
For Starbucks, expanding vegan menus globally is one of the ways the company is pursuing its goal to reduce its carbon footprint by 50%, it said. The newly-launched vegan food menu provides more options for customers, in addition to Starbucks’ existing beverage customization options with plant-based dairy alternatives such as almond, oat and soy.
