Theobroma doubled down on stores post-Covid: 100 outlets, Rs 600 crore by FY25

Theobroma is a premium bakery and patisserie chain in five Indian cities, selling brownies, tea cakes and breads through stores, delivery-only cloud outlets and online.

Physical stores remain the growth engine post-Covid: scale from 100 to 175–200 outlets by FY25 for Rs 600 crore, with cloud kitchens and online as feeders, not the core.

The ICICI Venture-backed chain built offline stores across five cities, delivery-only cloud outlets and its own online brand store — then Covid shutdowns, capacity limits and restricted hours sharply declined its dine-in business.

The sector revived sharply: by August 2022 Theobroma had crossed pre-Covid numbers, footfalls were back at pre-pandemic levels, and it opened its 100th outlet. It reported Rs 250 crore revenue for FY22, tracked Rs 375 crore for FY23, and projected Rs 600 crore by FY25 with 175–200 outlets, mixing new cities, cloud outlets, aggregator and own-store online sales, and e-commerce tie-ups.

It kept its physical network through the downturn and was rewarded with an early return to pre-Covid footfalls and revenue.

The expansion plan treats stores as the core and digital channels — cloud outlets, aggregators, Amazon, SuprDaily — as complementary demand capture.

The revenue path is explicit and dated: Rs 250 crore (FY22), Rs 375 crore (FY23), Rs 600 crore with 175–200 outlets (FY25).

Physical retail didn't die in the pandemic — it paused. When footfalls return to a category, the winners are the ones still holding locations rather than the ones that pivoted fully online.

As of 19 August 2022, Theobroma was expanding offline across existing and new cities toward 175–200 outlets by FY25, with the NRAI projecting the food services sector to grow from about Rs 4.2 lakh crore to Rs 7.7 lakh crore by 2025.