Britannia to foray into cafés in big way; seeks franchisees

Britannia Industries is planning to scale up its fledgling cafe business. The café foray is being lead by Daily Bread Gourmet Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Britannia. The subsidiary of the Wadia group company has tied up with large-format retailers such as Spencer's to set up shop-in-shop formats. While the company currently has 22 company-owned and eight franchisee stores in Bangalore, it has five stores in Hyderabad and three in Goa in master franchisee formats, reports Financial Chronicle.

"We are investing around Rs 15-20 lakh per store and we want to focus on the catchment areas we understand well and prioritise those markets. We plan to open 75 more stores across major cities as we believe the scale will help us break even faster," said a top Daily Bread Gourmet Foods official close to the development. These outlets are expected to come up across India with a focus on cities such as Bangalore, Hyderabad and Goa.

The company claims that its stores have already started generating profit, which has emboldened the group to fund the rollout of more stores. "We have already broken even at the store level since we cater to both institutional and retail clients," added the company official.

Daily Bread is now looking at franchisees for its formats ranging from 100 square feet kiosks to 300-700 square feet premium cafés. It also intends to appoint franchisees for 4,000 square feet decentralised production units costing Rs 2 crore each. Franchisees for kiosks are expected to invest Rs 10 lakh, while those for cafes are expected to pony up Rs 15-25 lakh.