Punit Paranjpe/Agence France-Presse - Getty ImagesIndia's first Starbucks' coffee shop opened in Mumbai's upscale Horniman Circle.MUMBAI â€" In January, executives at Starbucks and its Indian partner, the Tata Group, announced ambitious plans to open 50 stores in the country by the end of the year and speculated that they could one day have as many as 3,000 outlets here.
On Friday, the first of those stores â€" a 4,000-square-foot, two-level extravaganza filled with metal trunks, bright curtains and other Indian cornucopia - opened in south Mumbai off the historic Horniman Circle. But in a sign that India w ill prove to be a tougher market to crack than they had originally thought, executives from both companies seemed to walk back their lofty forecasts from 10 months earlier, saying that they would now open just two more locations in Mumbai this year and their first stores in New Delhi wouldn't be ready until early 2013.
Howard Schultz, the chairman and chief executive of  Starbucks, declined to answer questions about how many stores the company planned to open in India or how much money it would invest here. Krishna Kumar, the Tata executive, who offered the 3,000-store estimate in January, also declined to provide any details.
“We are coming here with humility,†Mr. Schultz told a throng of reporters, photographers and camera crews at a press conference Friday afternoon. Earlier, in front of a smaller group of reporters and editors, he said the company saw “a tremendous opportunity†in India.
The few details the company was willing to offer were limited to what it planned to sell in in its stores and for how much.
The coffee at Starbucks stores in India, unlike in other countries where it operates, will be from beans grown and roasted in the country, by Tata Coffee. Mr. Schultz said the company spent six months preparing a distinct Indian blend at its headquarters in Seattle.
The company will sell its beverages at lower prices than it does elsewhere and than many of its competitors do in India. A “short†black coffee, for instance, will sell for 85 rupees ($1.57), which, while more expensive than local chains like Café Coffee Day, is cheaper than comparable beverages at other foreign chains like Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The company will also offer food items like a cardamom-flavored croissant and chicken tikka panini meant to appeal to Indian palates. The store will also offer free wireless Internet service.
But if Starbucks and Tata were light on details, they were c ertainly not scrimping on pomp and ceremony. After the press conference ended, the executives shuttled to the cavernous back room for a marathon series of interviews with TV channels. Waiters walked around serving vanilla lattes, frappuccinos and pastries but, oddly, no espressos or regular coffee to the reporters and camera crews waiting for their turn at an interview.
Outside the store, Tata officials had set up two large platforms facing each other on the street, blocking all but one lane of traffic. The stages and stacks of chairs waiting to be put out were meant for an 8 p.m. event â€" officials refused to say what kind of event â€" to mark the store's opening. A big black curtain blocked the view of the store's entrance except Starbucks's trademarked green siren logo.
After those festivities end, the store will be thrown open to the public at 10:30 p.m. It will be followed by openings of outlets at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba and the Oberoi Mall in the northern suburb of Goregaon next week.
Mr. Schultz said he considered the opening of the Horniman Circle store to be more important than other openings in its history because it had been a long time in the making. The company has been looking to set up shop in India for five years and had several false starts. At first, it was unable to find the right partner. Later, it put India on the back burner to focus on the growth of its business in China. It again put its India plans on hold in 2007 and 2008 because of the global financial crisis.
“This is a major milestone for the company,†he said.
