Bangalore: Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) ,the food and beverage arm of Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company (ABCTCL), is steaming a cuppa of international acquisitions.  Indias largest cafe chain on Tuesday announced it has bought out Czech Republic based cafe chain Cafe Emporio for Rs 15 crore. Cafe Emporio has 11 outlets with seven of them in ^prague,one each in Brno and Olomouc and two in Freeport-Hate.

CCD said it is talking acquisition to three other cafe chains in central and eastern Europe,and has also started looking at cafe chains in West Asia and the Asia-^pacific region. Slovakia and Hungary are two European markets that CCD has a close eye on.

In the next 2 to 3 years we plan to have 50 international outlets. Due to the recession our international roll out took a back seat. But now the market has picked up and we are aggressively looking to grow our footprint across emerging markets, said Shweta Shetty, president (international business) at CCD.

In the last three months,V G Sidhartha, promoter of the Coffee Day Group, roped in $200 million in funding from global private equity majors New Silk Route, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Standard Chartered private Equity. A significant part of the capital raised is being deployed for CCDs expansion in India and overseas markets.

According to Shetty, an inorganic growth model would help CCD grow faster in international markets. Every outlet of Cafe Emporio is EBITDA cash positive. And there are many such cafe chains around the world, which are doing well, that could be bought, she said. CCD already has four company-owned outlets in Vienna and one franchise outlet in Karachi. CCD plans to co-brand its acquisition as Cafe Coffee Day-Emporio and after about 18 months it plans to bring the branding completely under the CCD umbrella.

So what does this acquisition mean for CCD in India? Well there could be a lot of product interflow from Emporio on to the CCD menu. I really like the hot chocolate that Emporio serves and Im sure it will be a big hit in our cafes in India. Besides this, whatever product of Emporio that would suit our menus here in India, we would definitely look to incorporate it, Shetty said.