Wake up and smell the coffee

To stem the flow of red, the Barista group of coffee shops is scrambling to find new solutions. Getting rid of its expansionary chief execut...

To stem the flow of red, the Barista group of coffee shops is scrambling to find new solutions. Getting rid of its expansionary chief executive has not been enough. Whispers indicate that the company now believes, that there is a lot more wrong that can be fixed with merely having one head roll. While the Tatas seem to be keen on expanding their level of equity in the company from its current 34 per cent, it’s not yet clear in what form these new investments, that the company desperately requires will be brought in. Since tycoon Amit Judge is still in the hot seat as far as the big corporate decisions are concerned, the attempt is to put into place a series of small but significant changes. Traffic has been kicked up by the fact that prices have been reduced substantially across the entire menu card. But this is still not enough. A major reshuffling of the existing portfolio of outlets is on and the franchisees are all set to roll out into parts of the market that Barista was previously too afraid to touch. Hopefully, Judge will be able to pull this reshuffle through and meet his target of turning up a profit at the end of 18 months. In the meantime, the fact that other coffee chains are still unable to provide much competition is helping him. But,the fact that global chains are not likely to wait forever before they enter the market should induce some sense of anxiety.

Extended feud

The feud has never ended, now it has just turned worse. Since the term of the chairperson of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) Amrita Patel was ending, Verghese Kurien had begun to campaign against her by putting up his own choice, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) managing director B.M. Vyas to head the NDDB. However, all this was spoilt when the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, chose to give Patel a five- year extension. Added to this, the milk crisis that was developing in Gujarat is causing a rise in annoyance levels. While Kurien has been blaming Patel’s bad management of affairs for causing the shortage in the first place, Patel is using the incident as an excuse to justify her demand for the import of SMP (Skimmed Milk Powder) in the country. Kurien is totally against this as he believes it will adversely affect milk prices. Well the argument continues, whether Patel or Kurien will turn out to be right is unimportant, what’s important is that the people of the State get their milk supply in order. And this has helped at least one milk tycoon, stay in her rather comfortable position securely for the next five years.

Bengal an IT Mecca!

After many false starts, Bengal’s IT scenario finally seems to be pulsating with activity. What with Satyam, Wipro and now Infosys eyeing the State there is definitely a buzz. Rumours are rife that Infosys is looking at Bengal rather seriously for setting up its next development centre. Company officials have of course come up with the words ‘no immediate plans’ but something seems to be brewing. It all started with headhunters on the lookout for recruitments within two months for the new Infosys development centre coming up in Bengal. Narayana Murthy is looking at making Kolkata the main centre in eastern India. While there is a huge centre in Bhubaneswar, it hasn’t quite taken off as yet. The IT minister of West Bengal has also confirmed that Narayana Murthy has always shown a happy partiality towards Bengal and now has big plans for the State which could be announced as early as December. The recent outstanding performance of Infosys has probably prompted Narayana Murthy to prepone his investments in Bengal and make his announcement ahead of the usual corporate schedule.

Dilip Cherian runs public relations firm

Perfect Relations.

Write to dilipcherian@now-india.net.in

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