The story
Founded by V. G. Siddhartha in 1996.1
Café Coffee Day Global Limited Company is a Chikkamagaluru-based business that grows coffee in its own estates of 20,000 acres. It is the largest producer of arabica beans in Asia, exporting to various countries including U.S., Europe, and Japan.
V. G. Siddhartha started the café chain in 1996 when he incorporated Coffee Day Global, which is the parent of the Coffee Day chain. The first CCD outlet was set up on July 11, 1996, at Brigade Road, Bangalore, Karnataka. It rapidly expanded to other cities in India, with more than 1,000 cafés open across the nation by 2011.
In 2010, it was announced that a consortium led by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts would invest ₹1,000 crore (equivalent to ₹24 billion or US$250 million in 2026) in Coffee Day Resorts, owned by the company. The same year, the logo was changed to the current logo, which the company stated was to showcase the chain as a place to talk. This was done with major changes in the layout of the stores, including the addition of lounges and a total revamp of the interiors.
The company is vertically integrated as per the strategy to cut costs: from owning the plantations to growing the coffee, making the coffee machines and making the furniture for the outlets.
On 29 July 2019, Siddhartha went missing, and his body was found in the Nethravathi river backwaters two days later. A letter, assumed to be written by Siddhartha addressing the board of directors and staff, was made public in which he takes responsibility for not creating a profitable business model.
In September 2019, the company appointed auditing firm Ernst and Young to scrutinize their books of accounts. They also indicated the auditor will also look into circumstances of the last letter written by the founder and the points he made in it.
In March 2020, Coffee Day Enterprises Limited announced that it has reached an agreement to sell Global Village Technology Park, a 90-acre tech park on the outskirts of Bengaluru, for a total consideration of ₹2,700 crore for repaying the debt of Cafe Coffee Day's associate firms and their promoters. In 2023, IndusInd Bank filed a bankruptcy petition against Cafe Coffee Day.
From Wikipedia’s article on Café Coffee Day, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4