A 77-year-old South Indian filter coffee brand that now brews more than 1.8 million cups a day has been honoured for keeping its legacy intact while expanding into modern formats and overseas markets. Bengaluru-based Cothas Coffee Co. received the Legacy Continuity Award at the FKCCI MSME Excellence Awards 2026 on June 16 in Bengaluru, according to Business News This Week and The Tribune.
Cothas Coffee Co. was founded in 1949 by Sri Krishnaiah Chetty and is today led by Chairman C.K. Sreenathan and third-generation Managing Partner C.S. Nitin, The Tribune reported on June 16, 2026. The company operates a 100,000 square foot manufacturing facility in Jigani on the outskirts of Bengaluru and a 40,000 square foot roasting facility, according to The Tribune and a July 7, 2025 blog on the company’s website.
The brand’s scale at home is reflected in its retail footprint. The Tribune reported that Cothas runs more than 75 company-owned stores across its home region, while a September 25, 2024 article in The Hindu noted that there were about 60 Cothas Coffee stores across South India as of late 2024. In the same Hindu report, Chairman C.K. Sreenathan estimated that the company’s products were available in at least 16,000 of 20,000 grocery stores in Bengaluru.
The company’s international reach remains comparatively small but growing. The Tribune reported that Cothas exports to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, and The Hindu stated that exports accounted for about 5% of the company’s business as of 2024. According to its IndiaMart profile, the company’s annual revenue falls between 100 crore and 500 crore Indian rupees.
The Legacy Continuity Award was presented during an event organised by the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FKCCI), which dates back to 1916 and was founded by engineer and statesman Sir M. Visvesvaraya, according to FKCCI’s own history. Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Shobha Karandlaje and former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister C.N. Ashwath Narayan were among the dignitaries presenting the awards, The Tribune reported on June 16, 2026.
Reacting to the recognition, Sreenathan framed the award as belonging to a wider community. “We are deeply honoured by the Legacy Continuity Award, but we do not see it as ours alone. It belongs to our founder, to the growers in Kodagu and Chikmagalur who have stood with us for decades, and above all to the millions of families who have made Cothas a part of their daily ritual,” he told The Tribune, referring to the estates in Karnataka from which Cothas sources its beans.
Cothas emphasises a traditional South Indian-style blend built on an 85:15 coffee-to-chicory ratio, according to its July 7, 2025 company blog, and offers filter coffee powder, ready decoctions, instant coffee and cold beverages, The Tribune reported. The same Cothas blog post stated that the company serves over 18 lakh (1.8 million) cups of coffee daily through its stores, grocery sales and other channels.
Managing Partner C.S. Nitin told The Tribune that inheriting a 77-year-old name has required the brand to keep its familiar filter coffee intact while changing how it reaches consumers. He cited quick-commerce delivery, exports that carry a familiar taste to households in cities such as Toronto and Dubai, office vending through the company’s Liqcaf machines, and cold beverages as examples of newer formats that still “carry the same Cothas soul.”
According to The Tribune’s June 16, 2026 coverage, Cothas sources beans from long-standing supplier relationships in Kodagu and Chikmagalur, two major coffee-growing districts in Karnataka that feed into India’s broader arabica and robusta production. The Hindu reported in 2024 that the company had imported a roasting machine from Germany in the 1970s and set up a factory in Bengaluru’s J.P. Nagar area, describing this as a step in its transition from a small roastery to a larger-scale regional player.
As of the 2026 award, The Tribune described Cothas Coffee Co. as representing three generations of unbroken craft over 77 years, with its Legacy Continuity Award recognising this sustained family stewardship alongside the company’s current footprint across retail, grocery, vending and export channels.
