New Levista Coffee Vice President Shriram Sanjeevi targets travel retail revenues

Indian company SLN Coffee has appointed Shriram Sanjeevi as Vice President – Sales & Marketing for its flagship brand Levista Coffee. The retail industry veteran (and former travel retail specialist) assumes responsibility for a variety of business development functions including strategy, to which he intends to bring a focus on generating travel retail revenues.

Levista specialises in instant and filter coffee powder and currently has over 500 distributors in India, which service about 25,000 general trade stores. Sanjeevi said the company aims to engage an additional 1,500 distributors and reach a total of 100,000 points of sale by the end of FY 2022.

Thinking big: Retail industry veteran Shriram Sanjeevi describes travel retail as “an endearing opportunity” for the Levista Coffee brand

This target includes a planned penetration of the travel retail market, of which Sanjeevi said: “Across the 100+ airports in India, a little under one million passengers fly daily and coffee is an integral part of the journey. While established chains like Café Coffee Day and Starbucks are a natural favourite for regular passengers, it opens up a large appetite for homegrown brands like us as we serve instant coffee at affordable prices, especially for visitors.

“Alongside, Levista is currently exploring opportunities to be present at one of India’s most populated railway stations as well as at Metro rail stations. Travel retail is an endearing opportunity for us.”

Sanjeevi’s ambitions for Levista in the travel retail market will be supported by his strong background in the channel. In 2006, he joined the start-up team which was responsible for the opening of Kempegowda International Airport, India’s first private greenfield airport. As Senior Manager – Travel Retail, he was responsible for conceptualising and making operational all of the retail and commercial areas at the airport.

“Across the 100+ airports in India, a little under one million passengers fly daily and coffee is an integral part of the journey.” – Levista Coffee Vice President Shriram Sanjeevi

In his subsequent roles, he helped set up 140 cafes for Café Coffee Day across India and had a two-year spell with Royal Enfield Motorcycles, where he was responsible for expanding the company’s dealership network.

Sanjeevi has several notable awards to his credit, including this month being named as ‘Most Influential Food Industry Professional’ by the Asia Food Congress, ‘Top 100 Retail Minds’ by the World Federation of Marketing in 2018 and in the ‘Top 50 Retail Professionals of India’ by the Asia Retail Congress in 2014.

Reflecting on his new appointment, Sanjeevi said: “I am extremely happy to join Levista and look forward to putting to use my over two decades of experience in the retail industry, especially from my learnings during my stint at RPG Foodworld and make Levista the preferred brand of coffee for ‘at home’ and ‘on premise’ consumption not only in South India but also in strong-tea markets across the country.”

Levista Instant Coffee first hit retail shelves in December 2017 and the brand now also has filter coffee in its range

SLN Coffee Chairman & Managing Director Narayanan Sathappan said: “We are very happy to have Mr Shriram join us. He brings along over two decades of experience in the retail business and we believe he will drive the Levista Coffee business to greater heights in the coming years.”

Levista’s parent company SLN Coffee has a 60-year history of owning and managing coffee plantations and is among the top ten coffee exporters in India.

NOTE: The Moodie Davitt Report also publishes FAB, the world’s only media focused on airport (and other travel-related) food & beverage. The FAB Newsletter is published every two weeks and The FAB eZine every month.

Please send all news of food & beverage outlet openings, together with images, menus, video etc to Martin@MoodieDavittReport.com to ensure unrivalled global exposure.

The company also organises the annual Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Conference & Awards. FAB 2020 will be held in Istanbul on 23 and 24 June. Istanbul Airport will host the event, which will be a celebration not only of the best in international airport dining but also of Turkish cuisine and culture. FAB 2020 will be supported strongly by Tum & Ictur, the concessionaire managing 34,000sq m of food & beverage space at Istanbul Airport.

Food & Beverage The Magazine eZine