Bevzilla attempts to create offline presence through ‘chai tapris’

If you’re gossiping about the office or talking about a new startup idea, chances are that you will most likely have a cup of hot tea (‘garam chai’) in your hand. The ‘Tapri wali chai’ is a favourite spot among most people, including office-goers and college students, even before cafes, bars and vending machines came into the picture.

Seeing the popularity of ‘Tapri wali chai’, Bevzilla, a D2C coffee brand, has partnered with local tea stalls (‘chai tapris’). The brand has already launched 250 tapris in Gurugram and will launch 1,000 in Delhi-NCR by the end of July. The brand offers/will offer hot and cold coffee at these tapris.

“Our objective is to partner with chai tapris pan-India and empower them so that small businesses don’t lose their relevance in the growing popularity of cafe culture,” shares Anurag Chhabra, co-founder, Bevzilla.

“We struck upon this idea when Aakash Anand (founder and CEO of IDAM House of Brands) and I went to a chai tapri outside our office for a smoking break. At the stall, we came to know that its owner earns a margin of 20-30% after selling a cup of tea. When we asked him about coffee, he said that his customers did mention cold coffee, as it’s the summer season in Delhi.” 

Bevzilla has a product called ‘Cold Coffee Shaker Pack’. The owner of the tapri then started selling cold coffee too, using Bevzilla’s product, at Rs 25 per glass. 

“The margin (coffee glass) stood at 60%. I then asked the owner of the tapri to partner with us. After that, we rebranded the whole tapri,” Chhabra highlights. 

The partnership will increase the monthly incomes as well as margins of tapri owners. At these tapris, Bevzilla isn’t just selling cold coffee, but also products that can act as the brand’s offline store. 

“We placed our products at the tapris and the vendors informed us that the customers were now buying 100-150 coffee sachets daily, along with cold coffee.”

Is the brand looking to replace chai?

In India, chai kickstarts most, if not all, people’s day. According to Statista, tea’s consumption volume in the country, was over a billion kilogram in 2022. The consumption of coffee, in comparison, stood at over a million (approx.) in the same year. This clearly indicates that coffee can’t replace ‘street drink’, i.e., tea. There’s a chai tapri at every corner of every city in India. 

Chhabra says, “India is a ‘tea country’. Smoking (‘sutta’) and tea are a popular concept on the streets of the country. But after talking to the customers, I realised that some of them are shifting to coffee now. We know that it’s impossible to replace chai, but still, we can grab some share. Also, smoking and coffee can be a great combination.”

Bevzilla is also helping to train the cart owners on how to make different types of cold coffee. They are also taught how to explain different coffee flavours to their customers. 

Cold coffee is available at Rs 10 (120 ml), Rs 25 (200 ml), and Rs 50 (300 ml) at chai tapris. Bevzilla is currently focussing on North India with this initiative.

On whether Bevzilla is doing all this for brand awareness or there’s a revenue stream attached to it, Chhabra responds, “We have a brand awareness in the online segment. This is also one-of-a-kind brand awareness in the offline world. Through this, we’re hardly generating 0.1% revenue, but we’re able to empower the ‘tapriwalas’.”

The brand’s sales model comes from 90% (online mode) and 10% (offline mode). In the online segment, 40-45% sales come from the website, 30-35% from quick commerce segment and 15-20% from online marketplace.

In March last year, IDAM acquired a 40% stake in Bevzilla. They initially invested around $1 million on the new product, team building and marketing. The brand is looking to take its products pan-India as well as in the international markets.