Tata Coffee to expand operations in Madurai for delivering to Starbucks - Seattle Based Coffee Tea Company

Tata Coffee, which makes and exports instant coffee and plantation coffee, plans to invest $10 million to increase its instant coffee capacity by 2,000 tonnes from the 6,500 tonnes, Kumar told Reuters.

"We will be adding capacity at our existing plant near Madurai... It should be operational by the third quarter of the next financial year," he said. Madurai is in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu, near where they also have plantations.

The two companies had planned to open the first Starbucks outlet in India by mid-2011, but the plan was delayed on account of difficulties in acquiring real estate, Tata Coffee Chairman R.K. Krishnakumar had told Reuters in August.