Monday, January 17 2005 17:15 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Leading cafe chain, Cafe Coffee Day planned to open 15 outlets in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is also actively looking at Austria and China to make a foray, its CEO Naresh Malhotra said today (Jan 17, 2005).

"We opened an outlet in Dubai last week. We are planning open 15 in UAE," he told reporters in Bangalore.

Malhotra said Cafe Coffee Day, part of the Rs 300 crore coffee conglomerate Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Limited (ABCTCL), has opened an office in Austrian capital of Vienna, where it intends to open five coffee bars.

After the initiative in Austria, the coffee chain would firm up plans for the dragon country, he added.

Asked about the proposed investment for overseas expansion, Malhotra said setting up of an outlet entails an investment of anywhere between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh.

"We hope to open 50 to 60 outlets overseas in the next one year."

In India, it's today present in over 50 cities where it has 200 outlets. "The number would be definitely increased to 250 outlets in 60 cities by March end", Malhotra said. "Our intent is to open 100 new outlets every year."

Meanwhile, at a press conference, Cafe Coffee Day and Wide Area Network solutions provider Microsense Pvt Ltd announced a strategic partnership that would enable the former's customers to access Wi-Fi networks at several outlets in India.

Microsense's managing director S Kailasanathan said his company has already completed a national roll-out of Wi-Fi services at 50 Cafe Coffee Day outlets in Bangalore, Mumbai, New Delhi and Chennai.

By March, at least 100 outlets would be totally Wi-Fi enabled while the remaining would be covered in a phased manner.

Kailasanathan said Microsense has Wi-Fi networked 26 premier hotels in India, while six properties (premier hotel chain) in Sri Lanka would be similarly networked in another one-and-half months.

According to Microsense's director N V Krishna, the Wi-Fi service would feature plug and play functionality, VPN support, and `always-on' connectivity.

"The service would be provided through post-paid and pre-paid access accounts supported by a central authentication and billing platform, developed and operated by Microsense", added Krishna.