Tata Starbucks, $80-million 50:50 joint venture between US-based coffee chain Starbucks Coffee and India’s Tata Global Beverages, will open its first coffee shop in South Mumbai at Horniman Circle by the end of October.

John Culver, president of Starbucks China & Asia-Pacific businesses, said that the two companies were working very closely with each other, and would open more stores in different cities of India.

Speaking on the topic, Culver said, “There are other stores that we have planned for, besides the first one at south Mumbai’s Horniman Circle area.”

Avani Saglani Davda, 33-year-old Tata Administrative Service officer, has been appointed as the chief executive for Tata Starbucks JV. She is the youngest chief executive of any Tata Group’s JV. Davda, who has a MBA degree from the Mumbai University, has spent around a decade with the Tata Group. Of those ten years, she spent six years as the chief of staff at Tata Sons Director R Krishna’s office, where she was responsible for hospitality, beverages as well as real estate businesses.

On being asked about the sites for the coffee shops, Davda said the JV would initially try to leverage Tata Group’s properties, but added that those properties would be bought at market price. She added that coffee shops would be rolled out in Delhi-NCR by early 2013.

In the after-hours trading, shares in Tata Global Beverages jumped 8.3 per cent to close at Rs 142.80 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).