Learning outcomes The learning outcomes are as follows: Case overview/synopsis Shivendra Gupta and Akash Sagar founded the tea retail chain Samocha in 2017. Combining the Hindi terms for tea (Chai) and an Indian snack (Samosa), “Samocha” was established as the name of the café. The case study explores Shivendra and his friend’s entrepreneurial journey, the difficulties they encountered, and the steps they took to establish a tea retail chain with a difference. The case focuses on the promoter’s dilemma of which cities to expand, the retail model to adopt and the retail chain’s prospective expansion strategy. Complexity academic level The case study can be used in graduate-level and undergraduate courses on retailing, entrepreneurship, branding and marketing strategy. It can also be used to teach the retail strategy to be adopted for expansion. Students needs to have a basic understanding of food retailing, retail models, location analysis and strategic planning. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject code CSS8: Marketing.
Jayakrishnan et al. (2026) studied this question.