BWI: Swipe your Visa Debit Card at Barista Lavazza for Coffee and Cash

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: Visa
Wednesday, June 08, 2011 06:31 PM IST (01:01 PM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Entertainment, Food & drink, Lifestyle, People; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Banking & financial services, Business services, Hospitality, Information technology; Technology
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Swipe your Visa Debit Card at Barista Lavazza for Coffee and Cash
India's foremost café chain partners with Visa to launch a unique cash withdrawal facility

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, Wednesday, June 08, 2011 -- (Business Wire India) -- In a move that will further increase convenience for cardholders in India, Barista Lavazza and Visa have joined hands to launch Cash at PoS - the country's first cash withdrawal facility at the point of sale in a retail store. This will enable all Visa Debit cardholders to not only pay for their coffee and snacks but also withdraw cash at over 170 Barista Lavazza outlets located across the country.

As per Reserve Bank of India guidelines, Visa Debit cardholders can withdraw an amount of upto Rs. 1000 in a day, at any Barista Lavazza outlet. Cardholders can walk up to a Barista Lavazza café; swipe their debit card for their cup of coffee or any other meal and withdraw an amount that they may require. There will be no charges levied on the cardholder for the cash withdrawal transaction. Further, cardholders are not obliged to make a purchase to get cash.The service is currently rolled out in Delhi NCR & Mumbai. It will be extended to other parts of the country over the next few weeks.

Mr. Sanjay Coutinho, Chief Executive Officer, Barista Lavazza said, "Barista Lavazza has always been ahead in the services it offers. We have continuously delivered exciting services keeping in mind consumer needs and requirements while offering them with a complete experience. The recent launch of our loyalty programme, "Bean O Holic", was one such offering which was received with great enthusiasm and has found success in a very short period of time. We are now extremely proud to become the first café chain in India to partner with Visa to launch the country's first Cash at PoS facility at our cafés."

Consumers will now enjoy more convenient locations to access their money and the ability to combine accessing their funds with their trip to the café. This is enhancing the convenience and power that is being offered to Visa Debit cardholders!

Mr. Uttam Nayak, Group Country Manager, India and South Asia, Visa, said "Visa is delighted to partner with Barista Lavazza, one of India's leading cafés to launch this unique service for the Visa cardholders in India. Cardholders can now pay for their coffee as well as withdraw cash at the Barista Lavazza outlets. We believe that Cash at PoS will enable Visa cardholders to access their funds in an easy, convenient and secure manner. With the launch of this exclusive service Visa continues to offer new services and functionalities, which will enable Debit cardholders to further enjoy the benefits of electronic payments."

The launch of Cash at PoS service is another step towards building a greater customer base for Barista Lavazza in an ever growing and a competitive Indian market. Barista Lavazza has been known to offer innovative and customer-centric services to its consumers.

As part of this association, Barista Lavazza is also offering upto 30% discounts on customized meal deals to all Visa Debit cardholders.

Lavazza in India:

LAVAZZA is synonymous with coffee internationally. It is the true hallmark of Italian coffee and has been responsible for spreading the aroma of espresso coffee around the world for over a century. The popularity of the unique taste of its products comes from the strength of the experience, the use of the finest raw materials and advanced technological resources. Together with espresso, the symbol of the company's corporate culture, it offers a complete range of products to suit all palates, consumer habits and coffee preparation methods. It is the true symbol of Italian espresso coffee and the associated Italian identity worldwide.

Lavazza entered India by acquiring Barista Coffee Company Limited and Fresh & Honest Café Limited, India's leading coffee, vending and retailing, company in 2007. Luigi Lavazza S.p.A., with its origins back in 1895, is an international coffee powerhouse, synonymous with all things Italian - creativity, art, passion and of course espresso coffee. The brand is the sixth largest coffee roasters in the world, enjoys a market share of 48% share in the Italian retail market (value, source: Nielsen) and operates in over 90 countries, in the Home and Away-from-Home sectors (Foodservice, Vending and Cafes). In 2010 sales exceeded USD 1.4 billion.

Today it has consolidated its presence in the retail branded coffee, café products as well as in the coffee machines segment and has become a leading player in the country. Some of the innovative products from the company include Cookie Cup, Coffee Caviar and Coffee sphere, which not only appeals aesthetically but is also scrumptious in taste. It has also launched the internationally well know FMCG coffee brands like Club, Café Espresso & Qualita Rossa in the Indian markets. Lavazza also has a strong international presence in the espresso coffee capsule systems, directed towards the commercial and retail consumers through hugely successful products such as Lavazza BLUE and A Modo Mio.

Barista Lavazza:

Barista was established in February 2000 by Barista Coffee Company Limited, to recreate the ambience and experience of the typical Italian neighborhood Espresso Bars in India. Barista Lavazza aims to provide a comfortable place for people to relax and unwind over a cup of coffee. Barista Lavazza has also been voted 'Superbrand' three years in succession.

In 2007, Lavazza acquired Barista Coffee Company limited and post the completion of the brand integration process all Barista Espresso and Barista Crème outlets across India are known as Barista Lavazza and Barista Crème Lavazza respectively.

At present, Barista Lavazza has over 200 Espresso Bars and Crèmes in over 30 locations in India. Besides India, Barista Lavazza also has cafes in locations across Srilanka, Bangladesh, Oman and the UAE.

About Visa:

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable digital currency. Underpinning digital currency is one of the world's most advanced processing networks-VisaNet-that is capable of handling more than 10,000 transactions a second, with fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants. Visa is not a bank, and does not issue cards, extend credit or set rates and fees for consumers. Visa's innovations, however, enable its financial institution customers to offer consumers more choices:
Pay now with debit, ahead of time with prepaid or later with credit products.

For more information, visit www.corporate.visa.com



CONTACT DETAILS
Yash Anand, Integral PR, +91 9810517417, yash@integralpr.com
Rakesh Kr Jha, Integral PR, +91 9873904595, rakesh@integralpr
Anuja Sharma, Visa India, +91 9004604426, ansharma@visa.com
Preeti Hoon, Edelman India, + 91 9987037821

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENTERTAINMENT, FOOD, LIFESTYLE, PEOPLE, MARKETING, BANKING, BUSINESS SERVICES, HOSPITALITY, TECHNOLOGY

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