Chai Point all set to launch a hybrid payment model system

Chai Point, recognized as the world’s largest tea-led beverage platform, has entered a strategic collaboration with Medhavi Skills University (MSU), a university known for skill-based higher education, to roll out a workforce development initiative across India. The two entities signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Chai Point’s headquarters in Bengaluru to launch a "Learn While You Earn" model, aimed at frontline workers.

The initiative will be rolled out across Chai Point’s retail network and will allow frontline team members to pursue UGC and AICTE-recognized educational programs. Eligible employees—those who have completed 10th or 12th grade—can enroll in one-year certificate courses, two-year Diploma in Vocation (D.Voc), or three-year Bachelor of Vocation (B.Voc) programs. The program does not impose any age restrictions.

The agreement was signed in the presence of Sajeev Kumar S, Vice President - Industry Relations at MSU, and senior leadership from Chai Point including Mr. Kalappa K B, CHRO, and Mr. Allen Mathias, AGM MTA. The collaboration focuses on three main objectives: increasing access to industry-linked education, providing skill-based career development, and jointly creating curricula tailored to the sector's needs.

All programs under this initiative will be delivered on-site at Chai Point retail outlets, providing employees with hands-on experience while pursuing formal education.

"We are thrilled to partner with Medhavi Skills University to cultivate the next generation of talent through the 'Learn While You Earn' model," said Kalappa K.B., Head of People at Chai Point. "This initiative offers individuals the opportunity to elevate their education while contributing meaningfully to the workplace, reflecting our commitment to education, sustainability, and workforce empowerment."

At present, more than 900 frontline employees across Chai Point’s CP Experience and CP Everywhere divisions are eligible to participate. The partnership also plans to introduce a Centre of Excellence (CoE) focused on Chai and Coffee Brewing, and explore the development of MBA programs tailored for mid- and senior-level managers.

"Partnering with Chai Point enables us to deliver industry integrated programs that are grounded in real-world experience in the quick service restaurants and beverage industry. This collaboration is a testament to our shared vision of creating meaningful employment opportunities," said Pravesh Dudani, Founder and Chancellor of Medhavi Skills University.

“This partnership exemplifies our mission to co-create scalable Industry ready workforce development models that empower individuals through skill-based, industry-aligned education,” added Sajeev Kumar S, Vice President – Industry Relations, MSU.

Founded in 2011, Chai Point operates 180 retail stores across 9 major Indian cities and manages over 3,900 workplace community hubs in 119 cities. MSU, backed by over 300 industry partnerships, continues to strengthen its focus on work-integrated education aimed at increasing employability among the youth.

This partnership is expected to contribute to national workforce skilling goals, reduce barriers between education and employment, and provide scalable solutions for the QSR and hospitality sectors.

One of the largest Chai-led beverage platform, Chai Point has entered Amritsar by opening its store at the iconic Town Hall Complex near The Golden Temple.

The launch is in line with Chai Point’s retail expansion strategy of opening 100 more stores in the next 12-18 months and bringing an elevated Chai experience to a larger consumer base by leveraging the software and hardware capabilities of its myChai™ brewing system.

“We are excited to bring the Chai Point experience to a city known for its exceptional food culture. With our innovation backed myChai™ brewing systems and a wide array of food offerings, we are looking forward to delighting our customers in Amritsar with an elevated Chai led experience,” shared Amuleek Singh Bijral, Co-founder & CEO, Chai Point.

Chai Point is present in India through its retail network of 180 stores across 9 major cities and in over 3500 workplace community hubs covering 43 cities through its specialised brewing systems.

Over the past month, the company has opened 18 stores with a strong presence in major cities including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and NCR.

The brand serves over 700,000 cups every day and fulfilled 100 million cups delivery over the past year through its cloud kitchens and delivery networks using their innovative heat retaining Chai flasks which were launched in 2016. Chai Point is the first company in India to launch environment-friendly heat retaining Chai flasks that can keep the chai, coffee hot for upto 2 hours. With its packaged goods range, Chai Point has served over 8,300 pin codes in India.

Chai Point Amritsar is a large format store offering both indoor and outdoor seating. The premium store design and experience comprises a contemporary environment inside a historic building with careful attention given to its scale and original texture.

“While staying true to the building's typology of the space, we paid homage to the building's former stature by using materials and furniture that are relevant to the times when it was still an active palace, a time when artisans and royalty walked the halls of this massive palace. Therefore, we found a blend of contemporary and vernacular look and a tactile mix of materials in natural finishes that bear traces of craftsmanship and serve as an appropriate base for the design. As a showcase of our multi-layered approach to design, the original walls of the building were contrasted with massive wooden panelling that frames the space at sill level,” added Bijral.

The furniture for the Amritsar store is custom designed in Jodhpur with emphasis given to raw materials in special finishings that highlight the background of the space. The indoor - outdoor relationship is maintained by applying similar design ideas and material choices to the partition museum's outdoor terrace with cast iron tables and wooden benches circulating around planters.

Tea café chain Chai Point has appointed Manmeet Vohra as Chief Brand and Digital Officer.

With 20 years of strategic brand building experience and special expertise in the Consumer Retail Lifestyle Industry, Vohra, in her storied career, has led brand building for renowned international brands including Starbucks, Visa and TAG Heuer.

She started her luxury lifestyle marketing journey with the Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH Group) in 2003 where she worked with TAG Heuer watches for eight years.

Vohra served as the Director, Marketing, Category and Loyalty at Tata Starbucks between 2013 and 2017. She also had a brief stint as the Marketing Head, India and South Asia at Visa until 2019. Most recently, Vohra worked as an Independent Brand Consultant, devoting her energies to help brands and startups, across the spectrum, with strategic brand building.

She joins the Chai Point leadership team at a time when the brand is growing aggressively across channels like retail stores, cloud kitchens, corporate offices and institutions, online CPG and HORECA (hotels, restaurants and cafes).

“We are committed to building a global Chai and Coffee beverage platform leveraging the software and hardware capabilities of our myChai brewing system. We are thrilled to have Manmeet Vohra join our seasoned senior leadership team in building a global brand for our platform,” shared Amuleek Singh Bijral, Co-Founder and CEO, Chai Point.

At Chai Point, Vohra will focus on elevating and deepening the Chai Point consumer connect across all its channels - including the brand’s international foray. Her focus will especially be on building an integrated digital experience through the Chai Point App.

On the business front, Chai Point is planning to aggressively open new retail stores this year including taking the Chai Point experience to consumers in new cities. With the office channel making a comeback, Chai Point aims to double their Cloud based myChai brewing systems presence in the channel.

The company also plans to tap into the mid-size bakery market which is over 10 lakh cafes and bakeries in India by installing myChai brewing system across the space. myChai brewing system is a Cloud-connected Chai and coffee dispenser technology platform which gives Chai Point the capability to brew fresh chai and coffee with consistent quality at a global scale.

One of India’s largest omni-channel beverage brand, Chai Point, has announced its foray into the instant chai category.

The Company has launched Instant Chai in three flavours -- Masala, Ginger & Cardamom.

The instant chai will be available in convenient ‘sachet’ easy to carry formats priced at Rs 180 for a pack of 10.

Also Read: Drawing Parallels between the strategies of Chai Point and Luckin Coffee

“The Pandemic has brought about many fundamental shifts in our F&B consumption pattern. As white collar professionals with millennial mindset continue to WFH, their consumption of Chai is at an all time high and our customers want the same taste of Chai as they get in our stores albeit be ready in a matter of seconds. Launch of instant chai is another way to stay in tandem with the needs of our customers for who Chai is a fuel which keeps them going even when working remotely,” shared Amuleek Singh Bijral, Co-founder CEO, Chai Point.

The Instant Chai range is now available on Chai Point’s recently launched D2C platform Shop.Chaipoint.com in addition to biggest e-commerce sites including Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Big Basket, SuprDaily.

The range would also be available across 170 store of Chai Point.

May Interest: Chai Point to add tea dispensing machines to extend its reach to corporate offices

The Company aims to grow the Instant Chai category into Rs 10 crore business in the next 12 months.

By Nusra

Bengaluru- based tea café chain Chai Point has announced the launch of Chai Point Rewards, a loyalty program for its customers.

The Company has launched its new loyalty model approach from cash back driven to product-centric incentives wherein customers can earn points for every rupee spent as they order their favourite beverage whether in the store or online delivery and can redeem points for complimentary drinks.

“With our product focused program, we want to reward the loyalty of our customers and take the program a step further by bringing all of our channels into its scope. This program is bound to evolve in stages and we believe in the near future, we would stand out to be recognized for our endeavors,” shared Amuleek Singh Bijral, Co-founder & CEO, Chai Point.

The program is based on the simple logic of earning ‘Tea Leaves’ (reward points) with every transaction a consumer makes. On every Rs. 10 spent, one Tea Leaf (reward point) can be earned in the customer’s account. On collecting 30 Tea Leaves, the customer gets a FREE chai (hot/iced). The Tea Leaves (reward points) can be collected and spent at Chai Point stores, website, and app.

Additionally, if a customer reloads their Chai Point wallet, they receive an instant cashback of 3% into their wallet. This model has been created to promote cashless transactions and gain customer loyalty.

Chai Point was founded in 2010 by Amuleek Singh Bijral and Professor Tarun Khanna of Harvard Business School and has now grown to become the largest organized Chai Company in India.

Chai Point, a tea retail startup is gearing up to extend its reach to corporate offices. Zeroing on its expansion plan, the company has decided to soon launch its IoT-enabled tea dispensing machines to take its tea’s aroma to offices and corporates.

Speaking about the move, Amuleek Singh Bijral, Co-Founder & CEO said that the company already has about 1000 semi-automatic dispensers across 100 companies, and the new product, called boxC, is expected to bring 100 more corporate customers for the company by the end of the year.

The product will be floated in the market on Friday and company is riding high hopes on it. It is a utility service that Chai Point is offering to companies. Unlike regular tea machines, this will provide tea made from natural tea leaves, adds singh.

The machines will be connected to a cloud-platform which will also be accessible to customers who can keep track on the functioning of the machines as well as the billing process. Chai Point has collaborated with IT experts to carve the final product for the company.

However, company has shortlisted five corporates from Bengaluru and NCR to run its trial project. Once it completes its trial successful, it will be launching the product around the length and breadth of the country.  

Chai Point, owned by Mountain Trail Foods, has raised about $10 million from Eight Roads Ventures, DSG Partners and existing partner Saama Capital.

“With its focus on operations, supply chain and consumer experience, Chai Point is well positioned to emerge as one of the leading national brands in this space,” said Kabir Narang, MD, Eight Roads Ventures.

According to the company they will use the fund raised for expansion of the outlets, hiring, and building technology. The group has also raised a seed round of funding followed by $2 million round from Saama Capital.

Started by Amuleek Singh Bijral Chai Point operates in the same segment as Chaayos, Cha Thela, Tea Trail and Tea Box.

In the last one month the Indian food business has seen lots of tea chain raising funding with players like Chaayos, Tea Trail, Tea Box and now Chai Point gaining the investors attention.

“Tea consumption in India is eight-nine times that of coffee consumption. Chai Point’s goal is to create an aspirational brand for its young consumers for whom tea drinking is a part of their daily routine. We believe in building technology to rocket our accessibility and convenience goals for the brand and now will also be deploying a bulk of the investment proceeds towards this,” shared Bijral.

Chai Point has also built its own cloud-based software platform called Shark which connects the point of sale, supply chain, employee management, delivery system, and auditing etc. in one place.