Nando’s to open more restaurants in India

South African restaurant chain Nando’s is planning to open 12 more restaurants in India at an investment of around $12 million (about Rs.75 crore), taking the tally to 20 by the end of 2017.

“We plan to add 12 more Nando’s restaurants across India by 2017-end and will be investing around $12 million for the expansion. This does not include the land cost as the properties will be on a long-term lease,” Nando’s India Chief Executive Officer, Sumeet Yadav  said.

The new restaurants will be in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai Mumbai and Pune, he added.

The company presently has eight restaurants with three in Delhi, two each in Punjab and Chennai and one in Bengaluru, he said, adding investments for the expansion would be funded by the parent company.

Commenting on the business model adopted for India, Yadav said: “All the new restaurants will be company owned as Nando’s believes in the long-term potential of India.”

Except for the three restaurants in Delhi that are owned through a joint venture with Janpath restaurants, the remaining outlets are company owned, he added.

The company was started in 1987 by two friends Fernando Duarte and Robbie Brozin with a restaurant in Johannesburg in South Africa. The chain currently has over 1,200 restaurants in 25 countries across five continents.

Burman Hospitality Launches First Taco Bell Outlet

Taco Bell, the world’s largest Mexican-style quick service restaurant chain made its debut in New Delhi with its first outlet at Ambience Mall, Vasant Kunj. Taco Bell announced the Delhi launch with Burman Hospitality Private Limited (BHPL), its first franchisee in India incorporated by The Burman Family, the promoters of Dabur. In addition to the grand opening in New Delhi, Taco Bell has six restaurants in Mumbai and Bangalore. Taco Bell with Burman Hospitality Private Limited aims to take the count to 25 restaurants in the next 18-24 months.

The new restaurant’s contemporary design is inspired by its Mexican-style cuisine and the brand’s California-based heritage. It has an urban fresh look which brings to life the brand’s belief in freshness and made-to-order food which can be seen from the open kitchen. The 75-seater Delhi restaurant will offer international classics like Crunchy Taco Supreme, Crunchwrap and Burritos as well as Kathitto developed especially for India to suit the local palate.

Speaking about the launch Unnat Varma, General Manager – Taco Bell & Pizza Hut said: “Delhi fans have been asking for Taco Bell in their city and we are excited to offer our signature Mexican-inspired food and break-through value to our consumers here who have a youthful spirit. With a strong proof of concept in Bangalore and Mumbai, we are now eager to increase our footprint across India and are delighted to work with Burman Hospitality as part of our expansion strategy into northern states including New Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh and Uttarakhand.”

On the other side, Gaurav Burman, Director, Burman Hospitality Private Limited said: “We are delighted and honoured to work with Yum, the largest restaurant company in the world to grow Taco Bell in India. We believe Taco Bell with its differentiated and innovative product offering will win the hearts and stomachs of the Indian consumer. We look forward to opening Taco Bell restaurants across India and making it the most successful QSR brand in the country.”

Founded in 1962 by former U.S. Marine Glen Bell in Downey, California, Taco Bell proudly serves made-to-order and customisable tacos, burritos, and other specialties with bold flavours, quality ingredients, breakthrough value, and best in class customer service to over 36 million customers weekly across the globe. Taco Bell and its more than 350 franchise organisations have more than 6,000 restaurants across the United States and continue to grow with over 250 restaurants internationally including Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Arby's look towards India as the next growth market

Arby's, the second largest quick service restaurant sandwich chain in U.S. is looking to capture the palette-share of global food lovers. 

India is a focus country for Arby's, which has been serving innovative meat recipes for the past 50 years and is now 3,400 restaurants strong chain.

Founded in 1964, Arby's is the first nationally franchised sandwich restaurant brand with nearly 3,400 restaurants worldwide. 

The Arby's brand purpose is to "inspire smiles through delicious experiences." Arby's delivers on its purpose by celebrating the art of Meatcraft™ with a variety of high-quality proteins and innovative, crave-able sides, such as Curly Fries and Jamocha shakes.

 Arby's Fast Crafted™ restaurant services feature a unique blend of quick-serve speed combined with the quality and made-for-you care of fast casual. Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. is the franchisor of the Arby's Brand and is headquartered in Atlanta, GA.

Arby's is looking to develop the Indian market through Master Franchise.

Snap Fitness Pursues Aggressive Global Growth With New UK Master Development Agreement

Snap Fitness the world's leading 24/7 fitness franchise today announced a master development agreement for the United Kingdom with TwentyTwoYards Ltd. The agreement is one element of the Lift Brands-owned company's rapid international expansion; its Indian franchise partner recently announced plans to bring 300 new clubs to the second most-populous country in the world.
"The importance of living a healthy and active lifestyle transcends cultures" Peter Taunton Lift Brands CEO and Snap Fitness Founder said. "Snap Fitness' model has proven successful across multiple continents and with the fitness and business expertise of TwentyTwoYards we are confident America's fitness brand will be embraced by individuals across the pond."
As indicated by the 2014 State of the UK Fitness Industry Report the rapidly-growing low-cost market continues to drive the UK health and fitness industry's growth. Year over year the report found a 4.5 percent rise in the number of health club members. There are three Snap Fitness clubs currently operating and eight in development in the UK but the TwentyTwoYards group plans on opening 200 locations over the next four years.
"In the UK we have an ever-increasing awareness and desire to prioritize personal health and fitness" said Matt Quinn of TwentyTwoYards. "Snap Fitness clubs are helping more people than ever achieve their lifestyle goals and I couldn't be more excited to bring this internationally-proven brand to our country."
Snap Fitness is also expanding its footprint in the Indian market. Since selling its first franchise in 2009 Snap Fitness India has expanded rapidly with 50 clubs open or in development. Snap Fitness India CEO Dr. Virkam B.M. announced plans of opening 300 additional clubs by the end of 2017. The company which is pursuing new locations in cities including Delhi-NCR Bangalore Raipur and Kolkata.
With a total of 500 clubs opening over the next four years in the UK and India Snap Fitness is expecting to increase its number of clubs 25 percent.
"Entrepreneurs around the globe are recognizing the opportunity that Snap Fitness provides – not only is it a win for their portfolio but for the community as well" said Steele Smiley Lift Brands Chief Officer responsible for all domestic and international growth. "We are aggressively looking for the right partners to bring Snap Fitness to other emerging markets."

Under the agreements Snap Fitness provides master franchise partners with exclusive rights to use the fitness brand's trademarks intellectual property and systems for the length of the term. Additionally a dedicated team at Lift Brands headquarters in Chanhassen Minn. works directly with the companies to provide support.Currently Snap Fitness has more than 2000 clubs open or in development in 15 countries. 

Burger King to open 12 outlets in India over three months

American fast food chain Burger King will open 12 outlets in India over the next two-three months, six each in Delhi and Mumbai. According to people familiar with the burger chain’s plans, the brand will roll out its first outlet in the capital in less than a month at a prominent mall in South Delhi, followed by the rest in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Mumbai. With an investment of up to Rs.2-2.5 crore per outlet, Burger King is eyeing other potential locations like Pune, Chennai and Bangalore. To be sure, Burger King is launching in Asia’s third largest economy where a spurt in disposable incomes has led to a rise in out-of-home food consumption, pushing chains such as Domino’s, McDonald’s and KFC to expand. Burger King has spent the last six to eight months working on its menu that will result in some India-specific modifications in dressings for Indian consumers. The company will start with its vegetarian and chicken burgers, and subsequently add lamb burgers to its menu. 

Celio continues India focus, targets opening 100 stores by ’16

Celio, the French fashion retailer is all set to strengthen its connection with Indian customers. The brand, is eyeing a bigger pie of India’s organized menswear retail market. Celio brings an essentially urban European fashion trend through its collection of shirts, jackets, waistcoats, trousers, suits, jackets and accessories.

In India, Celio offers a wide range of smart casual, business wear, sportswear, clubwear and denims. Celio had stepped into the country in 2008, the brand opened its first store in R City, Mumbai in 2009. Today the brand runs 40 exclusive brand stores which are fully company owned and operated and 128 shop-in-shops. The brand has also penetrated through large format stores like Pantaloons, Central and Lifestyle. Celio is looking at rolling out 100 stores by 2016.

Riding the booming e-commerce wave, the brand has already registered 7 percent of its total revenue in the domestic market through online sales. It has tied up with leading ecommerce portals like Myntra, Jabong, Flipkart and Amazon. “The urban Indian youth is aspiring for fast, effortless fashion. In India the younger generation is as fashion seeking as their global counterparts. They have exposure of international trends through the net, TV and mobile. We want people to come up to us for global fashion,” says Rajiv Nair, CEO, Celio, Future Fashion.

Driven by a strong conviction in India market, the brand is eyeing deeper penetration through retail expansion and a strategic communication plan targeted at young consumers. “We are essentially a retail oriented company which means our philosophy or strategy is store, product and customer service centric. We are exploring various routes to increase our penetration and strongly believe internet is the way,” he says.

“We have a legacy of two decades and in India we are just a starter, we are still understanding the market. We see ourselves as a retailer first, backed by a fantastic manufacturing set up. We manufacture four crore garments in Asia per annum and 10 lakh of these per annum are for India. We are taking the slow route. We have set the route and standards. Now, our goal is to get profits at the corporate level,” adds Nair.

Although the brand is not in a hurry to open franchisee stores it does plan to slowly tap that route. “Even though we are looking at franchisee stores for expansion, it won’t be bigger than our company stores. We understand that we have to take the franchisee route to get into smaller territories,” sums up Nair.

French brand Lacoste looking at franchisee model to expand

French luxury brand Lacoste is planning to explore the franchisee model for expansion into tier-II cities in India.

The decision follows the good response it got in some tier-II cities such as Jalandhar, Jaipur, Chandigarh, and Pune.

According to Rajesh Jain Managing Director & CEO, Lacoste India, good responses were seen from tier-II towns located near the big cities. This apart, an increase in brand awareness coupled with rising proliferation of shopping malls in smaller towns are good indicators.

“While expansion in tier-II towns will mostly be through franchise routes, we will look to stick to the own-store format in major cities,” he told BusinessLine. Lacoste is currently present across 45 tier-I and II locations mostly through the company-owned model.

Plans are afoot to double the point of sales 90 over the next four years (FY-19). Created in 1933 by René Lacoste, the brand – famous for its polos (collared t-shirts) – entered India in 1993. Lacoste India is a strategic alliance between Lacoste and Sports and Leisure Apparel Ltd (SLA).

Most of the apparels sold here are manufactured from its existing facility in the country.

The company has one unit located in Noida, and the second one – in the same complex – is expected to be operational over the next six months.

Lacoste did not share the capacities or the investment details but maintained that units would suffice its India requirements.

According to Jain, the company was also mulling the entry into Nepal and Sri Lanka over the next one year.

Currently, SLA has the exclusive rights to manufacture Lacoste branded garments in India.

American premium burger chain Carl's Jr set to enter India

Come April, Indians will have the choice to taste charbroiled burgers by Carl's Jr - a brand that has been endorsed by the likes of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Padma Lakshmi.

California-based premium burger chain, Carl’s Jr, which is known for its signature line of charbroiled thick burgers and is among the top 10 quick service restaurants chains globally, is set to enter India, with the first outlet to be opened here by April next year.

The American fast-food chain has already signed a franchisee agreement with city-based Cybiz BrightStar Restaurants Pvt Ltd, owned by CybizCorp. Over the next five years, there would be at least 100 Carl’s Jr outlets in India, said Sam Chopra, group chairman and founder of CybizCorp The chain targets to open about 1,000 outlets across India over 10-15 years.

Carl’s Jr joins the race with the world’s second largest burger chain Burger King, which had formed a joint venture with private equity fund Everstone Capital last year to develop its presence in India and plans to open the first outlet soon.

Besides, its rival, Fatburger has already opened its first outlet in Gurgaon, near Delhi recently.

“It is a burger that is delivered in just three minutes after the order is placed. And, we deliver it fresh. Nothing is prepared before hand,” said Chopra, adding that he would, for the first couple of years, focus on the northern market. The chain would spend about $25 million (about Rs 150 crore) in the first five years in developing a presence in India.

CKE Restaurant Holdings, the parent company of Carl’s Jr, had already invested $1.5 million in India in consumer research, product development and tasting trials during the past three years, Chopra said.

“We target ticket size at Rs 400. We’ll not offer beef in India, and for the first time in Carl’s Jr history, vegetarian burger, with six varieties, will be introduced. Over the next few years, we may also look at taking vegetarian burgers to other countries,” Chopra said, adding that Carl’s Jr will not target the mass market. Sales of Rs 2.5 lakh a day an outlet would make the venture viable, he said.

Chopra believes that the time is right for a ‘premium burger quick-service restaurant’ such as Carl’s Jr to enter India. “As we are witnessing a burger revolution in our country, a parallel phenomenon that was witnessed in the pizzas and pasta category a decade back,” he added.

Besides India, Carl’s Jr has recently entered new markets like Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, New Zealand and the Bahamas.

Over the past decade and a half, a handful of quick-service restaurants have made a beeline for India, including McDonald's, Yum Brands - the owner of restaurants such as Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell- and Subway.

Kurlon Mattress Xpress Seeks Expansion Pan-India

Kurlon Mattress Xpress, a venture of Kurlon Enterprise Limited is looking forward to expand its business pan-India. The brand has 177 stores presently and is keen to increase its count.

Kurlon Mattress Xpress is a one stop shop focused on shopping experience for its customer's comfort needs. It is a smaller retail adaptation of the brandedretail space from Kurlon ranging between 400-900 square feet where customers could shop for Kurlon products like mattress, pillows, beds, tables, bed sheets, comforters, cushions and pillow protectors. For franchising, requirement of the brand in terms of area is 500 square feet and in terms of RoI is 25-30 per cent.

Kurlon has built a high recall amongst consumers over the years. To leverage this inherent strength it has entered the retail space with this one stop shop called Kurlon Mattress Express. Through this medium, the brand aims to showcase its entire gamut of products. Kurlon Enterprise Limited is a pioneer in the mattress industry. It is a 53 year old organisation which ia synonymous of ‘sleep comfort’. Kurlon has a pan-India presence with seven manufacturing plants of which four are green certified. It caters to the needs of consumers of all age groups with varied tastes and preferences.