With Starbucks on its way in, can Dunkin’ Donuts be far behind?

Dunkin Brands Inc., the owner of Dunkin’ Donuts, the world’s “largest coffee and baked goods chain,” is in preliminary discussions with potential Indian partners to roll out the brand, which sells nearly one billion cups of java each year.

“We are ready with our India strategy and are hopeful that we will tie up with a local partner in the next 6-12 months to be our master franchisee and roll out the brand across India,” said Srinivas Kumar, vice-president of international business, in an interview with Mint at the company’s Canton, Massachusetts, headquarters. He declined to identify the potential partners.

Dunkin Brands, which has annual sales of C$6.7 billion, has about 7,300 Dunkin’ Donuts outlets across the world that generated $5 billion in sales last year. Some 5,300 of these stores are in the US. Dunkin Brands is not entirely unfimilar with India as its Baskin-Robbins icecream brand has been here for almost a decade.

But the coffee retailer, which has spent almost two years studying the Indian market, says it is in no hurry even if the likes of Starbucks have sought approvals from the Indian government to set up stores.

“India is a huge opportunity,” says Kumar. “It is a strategic market for us and we have done a large amount of preparatory work towards taking Dunkin’ Donuts there.

We have studied the market closely—the models that the existing coffee chains have been following and the beverage drinking habits of Indians.”

Unlike Starbucks, which makes no bones about the premiumness of its offerings and prices its coffee accordingly, or Indian chains such as Barista, Dunkin’ Donuts plans to go for the masses.

“We want the wallets of the country’s 250 million middle-class households,” says Kumar. “We are not interested in the one million Indian households who lead aspirational lifestyles and pay too much just to be seen having coffee at a particular chain. We want to be a no-fuss, no-pretension brand in India. We are aware that to be successful in India, you have to budget for the fact that it is a highly price-sensitive market.”

To cater to the price-sensitive India coffee drinker, the Dunkin’ India menu will have a mix of local coffees as well as its trademark Dunkin’ Original Coffee, a higher-end 100% Arabica blend. “This will ensure that consumers across categories will have something for them in the store,” said Srinivas. Tea, the predominant beverage in India, could also find a larger representation on its menu.

Dunkin’ Donuts is in talks with Indian partners, some of whom have access to real estate.

Despite a building boom, the organized retail boom in the country has meant that emerging retail chains, in a hurry to roll out their brands nationally, are snapping up all available space.