Carnation Hospitality acquires Barista

Carnation Hospitality, a New Delhi based company has acquired Barista Coffee Co for about Rs 100 crore from Lavazza Spa.

The group will be the fourth owner of the struggling coffee chain in India. Carnation Hospitality, a unit of Haryana-based packaging company Rollatainers Ltd has entered the food segment earlier this year acquiring restaurant chains Kylin and Sartoria.

Speaking on the same, Sanjay Chhabra, Director, Carnation Hospitality, said, "We have recently expanded our food business and this is truly an exciting development for us. As part of our portfolio we are adding India's second-largest coffee chain.”

Barista's ownership has changed hands at least thrice since its inception. Lavazza had acquired the coffee chain along with the Fresh & Honest coffee-vending machine business from Sivasankaran's Sterling Infotech Group. The Tata group too had owned the chain for a short period before selling out to Sivasankaran.

However, the group is also planning to bring Jamie's Italian Restaurants to India through franchise arrangement.