Tata Coffee shares up after plans of new plant in Vietnam

Tata Coffee, one of the subsidiaries of Tata Global Beverages, announced its plan of setting up a new coffee plant in Vietnam. Reacting to the development, the company's shares were up nearly 2% on Tuesday morning. 

At 1144 hours, the company's shares on the BSE were trading at Rs 116 per share, up Rs 2.25 or 1.98% from previous close. It hit an intraday high of Rs 116.45 apiece. On the National Stock Exchange, the company's shares were trading at Rs 116.05, up Rs 2.65 or 2.34% over the previous close. 

In a notification to the BSE, Tata Coffee said it will set up "a state-of-art freeze dried coffee plant in Vietnam with an installed capacity of 5,000MT per annum."

Freeze dried coffee is a growing segment worldwide in the instant coffee segment, Tata Coffee said. Instant coffee accounts for about 20% of the global coffee consumption with freeze dried instant coffee remain to be the most popular one, the statement said. 

Tata Coffee says it is the second largest exporter of instant coffee and largest producer of Specialty Coffee in India. It also exports green coffee to countries in Europe, Asia, Middle East and North America.

Tata Coffee holds expertise in manufacturing freeze dried coffee. It already has 19 manufacturing plants in south India including at Coorg, Chickmaglur and Hasan in Karnataka, and in Theni, Tamil Nadu.

Tata Coffee had a strong two quarters. According to the company, Tata Coffee's income from operations rose 18% to Rs 206 crore in the June-end quarter from Rs 175 crore in the same quarter last year. 

Talking about the plans for a new plant, Sanjiv Sarin, Managing Director, Tata Coffee, said, "Tata Coffee has made steady progress in growing its freeze dried instant coffee business, which is now about 20% of our overall instant coffee portfolio. This move is in line with the company's strategy to strengthen focus on differentiation, premiumisation and customer centricity. Our commitment to quality, process improvement, sustainability, and understanding customers will help our growth in this market."

Adding to that, Sarin said, Vietnam offers an attractive business environment besides being the largest Robusta growing region and the plant will help them to achieve further global growth.