Bharat Petroleum plans to expand BeCafé to 50 petrol station stores by the end of March 2023 | Photo credit: Bharat Petroleum

Indian petrol station operator Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited has launched its first ‘BeCafé’ outlet at its Gurunanak service station in Uttarakhand.
 

Bharat Petroleum plans to launch 20 BeCafé’s at ‘strategic’ retail outlets across major tourist locations in India’s northern region, before expanding to 50 stores nationwide by the end of March 2023. 

The company said BeCafé represents its ‘highway to non-fuel business’ which will enable it entry into the ‘high-margin’ Indian food and beverage market.  

Bharat Petroleum is seeking to become India’s largest convenience-focused franchised café chain and is the latest example of a petrol station operator seeking to boost sales with a premium on-the-go coffee offer. 

In February 2021, Europe’s largest coffee chain Costa Coffee partnered with Auchan Retail Romania to install self-serve coffee machines at ‘dozens’ of its stores across the country. The partnership was extended in July 2022 and is expected to reach 400 MyAuchan petrol station stores by the end of 2023. 

Fellow UK-based operator LEON launched its own branded self-serve coffee kiosks in 68 EG-operated petrol forecourts across the UK in July 2022. 

Additionally, Shell Philippines begun opening Starbucks outlets at select petrol stations across the country in September 2022 in a bid to boost non-fuel revenue at 550 of its 1,300 petrol stations in the Philippines by 2025.