Pour Over Coffee Roasters plans 100 outlets by 2030

Delhi based specialty coffee chain Pour Over Coffee Roasters (POCR) plans to reach about 100 cafés by 2030 even as it builds a roasting business that it expects to become the bigger part of the company.

The bootstrapped enterprise is also looking beyond its own cafés. It plans a selective franchise model with established hotel and restaurant operators, and is in talks with Minor Hotels, the Thai hospitality major, for an agreement.

POCR already exports to Nepal and Sri Lanka and is exploring buyers in the US and Dubai. It also plans a roastery in the Czech Republic to serve Europe.


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The brand runs four company owned outlets. It plans to add three more cafés by the end of this year and to have 12 by 2027.

“The target is about 100,” said Ritika Sharma, who co-founded the company with her brother Aditya Sharma.

The upcoming cafés will all be company owned. Beyond the metros, the company is picking destinations with a well travelled audience, such as Pushkar.

POCR is profitable, and the smaller destination cafés are helping.

“The more we have expanded and scaled, the better it has become. McLeodganj has set the benchmark where we thought we would struggle a little, but it is doing really well. Those are profit making spaces, and that helps the whole business,” Sharma said.

Sharma said the business was originally meant to be B2B only, and that she still sees roasting as the heart of the brand.

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“We ended up getting a space in Khan Market and thought it would be nice for brand visibility. But B2B is where I feel the heart of the brand lies,” she said.

POCR roasts on two 1 kg machines with a combined capacity of about 250 kg a month. Demand is running at 350 to 400 kg, so the machines are being overused.

A 15 kg roaster ordered from Germany is expected by November, and the company is building a larger roastery in Okhla. At present, about 60% of what it roasts goes to its own cafés and the remaining 100 to 150 kg a month goes to other restaurants and cafés. Once the new capacity is in place, POCR wants to reverse that split so that B2B accounts for about 60% of volumes.

POCR exports Arabica and Robusta beans that it sources from estates in Karnataka. It also imports specialty coffee from Colombia. In July, it launched a limited Colombian Collection roasted in house from beans grown in Huila. The collection includes Papayo Natural, one of the world's rarest varieties, and an Indo-Colombian Blend.

The company buys directly from producers rather than through traders. “We go to farms, we pick the coffee we think is close to what Pour Over is, and we bring that in,” Sharma said.