IdeaChakki gets the backing from India's business tycoon Ratan Tata

Tata Sampann has launched ready-to-cook multi-grain khichdi mix which it will sell in 28 cities through e-commerce portal Amazon, Star Bazaar outlets in Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

"Our approach is to bring to consumers, products that are at the intersection of modern science and traditional Indian wisdom. Khichdi is a perfect example of this wisdom and with the ready to cook Khichdi mix. We are delighted to bring a unique combination of convenience, taste and nutrition to our consumer's plate," said Richa Arora, Chief Operating Officer, Consumer Product Business, Tata Chemicals.

The khichdi mix has been formulated with food connoisseur and Tata Sampann's brand ambassador Chef Sanjeev Kapoor and is inspired from the Guinness World Record winning khichdi made with the company's products at World Food India in November 2017, the statement said.

Tata Global Beverages posted a 39.1% rise in net profit to Rs 120.25 crore for the June-September quarter in comparison with the same quarter of the previous fiscal, which saw Rs 86.32 crore.

Net revenues stood at Rs 1,692 crore, up by 6% from Rs 1,621 crore in the comparable quarter in 2016. Operating profits were up by 23% to Rs 208 crore compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year, due to improved operating performance, good cost management and lower finance costs.

Group has completed the restructuring of its Russia operations, resulting in the sale of two of the company's overseas subsidiaries, Sunty LLC and Tea Trade LLC.

L Krishnakumar, Chief financial officer of Tata Global Beverages said “The company witnessed a good performance in its India business. While July was a slow month due to GST, August and September saw double digit growth. The quarter saw a number of new product launches across geographies and continued investment to strengthen our brands. The company will continue to innovate in tea, coffee and water with new blends and beverage experiences”.

Tata Global Beverages, the world's second largest tea company, announced the pilot launch of its first tea cafe "Tata Cha.”

Tata Global Beverages Regional President Sushant Dash said “It is our first entry into retail space; this is the pilot project we are starting with. We are planning to open four stores in the pilot phase in Bangalore. We will then consolidate, understand how the pilot goes, before we think about what the next step should be. His whole idea behind entering into Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) and tea cafe space was twofold. The first was this was a growth segment as eating out had been growing at an exponential rate second 70 per cent of consumption in the country in terms of one drink as beverage even out of home was tea”.

Company official said in a statement “The idea behind was to match the two of them given that people are going out, people drink tea, and Tata Global Beverages is best positioned to bring tea to customers, so we thought of getting into retail space and talking of tea cafe," he added. Tata Cha is designed to reflect the heritage of Tata Global Beverages while embracing local culture. The core objective was to create a space that was warm and nurture a "renewed love" for tea”.

Tata Cha will have three formats of stores large which will be about 1300-1400 sq ft, abbreviated around 700 sq ft, and kiosk which will be mostly at malls, IT parks, institutions and offices. Over the next three months the company intends to operationalize all the four stores in Bangalore. Responding to a question about launching in Bangalore, Dash said it "is one among the most cosmopolitan cities of the country and it might surprise many that there are more cups of tea that are had in country, than Coffee, our internal number show that 37,000 cups of tea as compared to 17,000 cups of coffee. It is significant difference in terms of tea and coffee."

Ratan Tata, top industrialist has invested in specialty tea firm Teabox, thereby continuing his long series of investments in various start-ups globally in the recent past.

Teabox said in a statement, "It has raised an undisclosed round of financing from Ratan Tata... The additional capital will help fuel Teabox's continued growth as it expands in other major markets around the world."

Teabox Founder and CEO Kaushal Dugar said, "We have grown up admiring and respecting his (Tata's) vision and business acumen on scaling the Tata group to a global level. His direct guidance and experience in the tea industry will surely help us grow Teabox to be the first global premium tea brand from India."

The Tata Sons' Chairman Emeritus has been aggressively investing in start-ups, ranging from e-commerce firms to cab aggregators. He has invested in firms like Snapdeal, Kaaryah, Urban Ladder, Bluestone, CarDekho, Sabse Technologies, Xiaomi and Ola.

Tata, who served as the chairman of Tata Sons for over two decades until his retirement in 2012, is also associated with some venture capital funds as advisor, including Kalaari Capital and Jungle Ventures.

Teabox, founded in 2012 delivers teas from Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiri and Nepal to the entire world. Within three years of its existence, Teabox claims to have delivered over 30 million cups worth of tea to customers in 93 countries.