A Great Opportuni(tea)

FiLLi Café is an entrepreneurial venture of a young Indian entrepreneur which was started by Rafih FiLLi in 1991. To become the largest and most admired tea brand in the world, FiLLi Café is now all set to make its India debut by the first quarter of 2016. 

Share with us your entrepreneurial journey and brief us about what really inspired you to enter the food & beverage industry?  

The history of the name FiLLi traces back to my school days, when my friends gave me the title FiLLi. The signature FiLLi Zafran Tea is a result of my own determination to introduce a specialty tea that people would love. I decided to take this taste globally by reaching out to every tea lover and making them fall in love with tea all over again.

When are you planning to launch FiLLi Café’s first outlet in India? What would be the investment and area requirements for taking up the franchise of FiLLi Café? 

Our target for the launch of the first unit in India is around the first quarter of 2016, the typical area requirements for a store would be between 800 – 1,500 sq. ft and the investment for each unit would vary between Rs 45, 00,000/- to about 75, 00,000/- per unit.

In which all countries, FiLLi Café is present at the moment? 

FiLLi Café is currently operational in the U.A.E, and we have recently entered into a franchise agreement for the Qatari market and have ongoing negotiations to enter into two separate area development agreements in the U.K. apart from this, we are currently laying our ground work for the our entry into the Indian market.

For entering the Indian market, what kind of market research have you conducted? 

For our entry into India market, we are conducting extensive research in terms of our brand positioning, menu offering, supply chain support, and the retail design and fit-out specifications etc. We have an in- house team to conduct all the market research along with strategic partners for all these activities.