Cafe Coffee Day on the verge of bankruptcy? India's popular hangout chain has a debt of Rs 280 crores

NEW DELHI: Cafe Coffee Day (CCD), which is India’s favourite hangout place is possibly at the verge of bankruptcy. According to a Business Standard report, this extremely popular café chain is has a whopping debt of Rs 280 crores.

The report quoted the exchange filings by CCD in the March quarter in which it disclosed a debt of Rs 280 crores.

It has also emerg3d that the lenders to CDEL, the parent company of CCD, are taking the firm to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to find a solution for its huge debt crisis.

The company opened its first cafe outlet on Brigade Road in Bangalore in 1996. Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) is also reportedly the largest organized retail cafe chain in the country with a presence in Austria, the Czech Republic and Malaysia.

Besides its café chain, the CCD is also into the export business. It is one of the largest exporters of green coffee in India since 1999. 

The company exports green coffee to the Middle East, Europe and Japan. The company is also involved in research and development and has successfully applied learning to improve the promotion of various coffee blends and increase its exports.

Significantly, the company ventured into the hospitality business in 2008. 

It established the Coffee Day Hotels & Resorts as a subsidiary of Coffee Day Global Limited and opened a resort in Chikmagalur.

In July 2019, CCD founder VG Siddhartha was found dead after which the company named SV Ranganath as the interim chairman of the Board and Nitin Bagmane as an interim chief operating officer.

Siddhartha was found dead, two days after he went missing mysteriously near Mangaluru in Karnataka. His post-mortem report ruled out any foul-play and attributed his death to water in the lungs due to drowning.