Oregano Restaurant Rolls Out Widespread Franchise Expansion Plan

The success of Oregano  in the midst of the burgeoning Dubai food market is simply a testament of its thriving business model and the market demand for great tasting authentic Italian cooking. In order to capitalize on this opportunity, Oregano has conducted a thorough franchise development program. As a result, Oregano franchise opportunity is now open to individuals and corporate investors who can repeat the success of Oregano in new market destinations worldwide.

Oregano restaurant was originally founded on the conviction that people all over the world experience the flavorsome recipes of Liguria – the culinary capital of Italy. It currently operates 6 restaurant outlets across prime locations serving healthy, delicious and authentic Italian cuisines to a wide range of dine-in, take-out and delivery Italian food lovers.

Mr. Joey Tawil, Head of Franchise at Oregano states, “Our primary goal is to share our passion for cooking thus giving all guests a taste of Liguria. We accomplish this through delivery of superior quality food and beverages while providing outstanding customer service and exceptional dining experience to every customer, every single day.”

“Oregano franchise endeavors to open 75 outlets in the next five years across target markets through organic growth and proven franchise strategy. Our initial focus is to recruit franchise investors across neighboring GCC countries and throughout the MENA region. Later, franchise units will be sold throughout emerging markets such as India, China and so forth. With a thriving business model and a solid franchising system, Oregano franchise ensures that franchisees are successful from the start,” he added.

Bulgari re-enters India, opens first boutique store in Delhi

Luxury jewellery company Bulgari has re-entered India and opened its first boutique store at New Delhi’s DLF Emporio after getting nod from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to set up single retail brand stores under a joint venture.

A part of the LVMH Group, the Italian brand is known for its jewellery, watches, accessories and fragrances. Earlier, the brand was present in India through a franchise partner, but withdrew its stores in 2011.

“Indians are very big jewellery consumers and are buying more than any other nation. But they are largely buying from family and neighbourhood jewellers, who are essentially local players. We are selling jewellery across many countries and believe we will be able to get a growing market share out of the total cake. As the market is expanding, there is room for everybody to grow,” Jean-Christophe Babin, CEO of the Bulgari Group, told Business Line. He said Indian consumers buy Bulgari products when they travel abroad and contribute significantly to the company’s business when they are out of the country. Now that the company is establishing its boutique stores in the country, it hopes to get bigger business.

“In the current joint venture, we have a majority stake and we decide everything and we believe we can represent the brand in a more complete way and present all the facets of the brand and have more control over the distribution.” The company did not give specifics about its Indian partner.

Asked about expansion plans, Babin said, “Given the distribution of demographics in the country, there is room for growth for luxury brands in 5-10 cities in the coming years. But the point is that there are not the right kinds of retail spaces or malls in these cities that meet the requirements of luxury brands.”

He said the company could look at opening boutique stores in luxury hotels but added that these had limitations as they attract limited traffic and are not enough to develop a big luxury business.

“Our expansion strategy will need to be a combination of luxury malls and selective luxury hotels,” Babin added. For now, the company is looking out for the right kind of luxury retail spaces to open additional boutique stores.

Nando’s expands presence in India, opens another outlet

Nando’s, a chain of casual dining restaurants based in South Africa, has opened its third franchise of Flame Grilled Peri-Peri Chicken restaurant in Connaught Place here Thursday night.

The Nando’s flame landed in India in 2010 and since then, the brand has got two franchises in Delhi including the first Vasant Kunj and second at Gurgaon.

The restaurant is know for it’s chicken and that is the reason other type of meat or even fish remains elusive from the menu. The emphasis is on chicken and it can seen when the dish is served.

The restaurant, which was started in South Africa in 1987, also keeps health quotient in mind as the chicken is not fried but grilled.

“Nando’s stand for chicken and chips and we are not diluting it to come to India. The product is the same across the world. The popularity has increased immensely with people getting over fast food and moving towards a healthier choice,” said Deepinder Singh Batth, CEO, Nando’s Delhi.

With eclectic interiors done in all-natural shades of wood and Afro music playing in the background, the restaurant promises to give a glimpse of the African side to the customers.

The dish not to miss out is Peri-Peri chicken which happens to be their signature dish. Their formula is to marinate chicken for 24 hours and grill it with the addition of various levels of chilli for a spicy style. One can choose from variety of sauces like lemon and herb, mild, hot and extra hot.

However, vegetarians need to get gloomy as there is also an array of decent vegetarian dishes too like Peri-Peri paneer kebabs. The place goes easy on the pocket with fairly priced menu.

“The idea is to provide a good and filling meal at a good price. Hence we have priced our food accordingly,” Batth said.

Sennheiser to open five exclusive outlets in India

German audio products company, Sennheiser, is planning to open five exclusive retail outlets in franchisee mode across India over the next three years, according to Kapil Gulati, India vice-president (sales and marketing – consumer segment).

The company, which forayed into the Indian market in 2007, opened its first exclusive showroom in Kolkata in January 2014. Pan-India, it also has nine shop-in-shops and over 2,500 touch points, with plans to double the number over the next two years.

“South India is a key market for us, contributing over 40 per cent to our India revenues. We are looking at setting up one of the proposed exclusive showrooms down south,” Gulati told mediapersons here on Tuesday.

Sennheiser, which has been witnessing a 70 per cent year-on-year growth in India, currently has over 100 headset models in its India portfolio, with prices of in-ear headphones starting from Rs 990 and on-ear headsets from Rs 1,490. “From Sennheiser’s standpoint, in-ear headphones still command 60 per cent of the Indian headset market,” he added.

Payless Shoesource has India on radar as huge opportunity, says Executive VP

Payless Shoesource is setting up base in India with stores in Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kochi, Coimbatore, Madurai, Mangalore, and Mysore. An American discount footwear retailer headquartered in Topeka, Kansas, it started franchisee business in India in association with Reliance Retail Ltd Payless currently has about 4,400 stores in more than 30 countries around the world.

Steve Gish, Executive Vice President, Payless ShoeSource said... It took us a long time to work out the courage to go to the international market and what we found from the start is that our brand works really well around the world. And it works particularly well in emerging markets that are growing quickly and there is an emerging middle class, which is why on trend products with great value makes it the kind of place where people will shop… In 2009 we started to do franchising. So we have started fairly recently in the franchising business and we have always have had India on our radar as a huge opportunity and we connected with our friends at reliance. We think they're the right partner and we're fortunate to be in business with them. Great experience across a lot of businesses, particularly retail. So it sounds perfect.

Gopalakrishnan Sankar, Reliance Retail's CEO of Footwear Business said..This is value fashion. The idea was to convert a lot of the unorganised market today in footwear, which is as high as 60 per cent, to the organised fold. The price range here typically you could fit most of it between Rs. 500 and Rs. 2500. It's a tight range.

We're looking for serious market leadership in the (footwear) segment, and you achieve that with different formats. We have an existing format (Reliance Footprints), which is doing its job. Then we have Payless, which is in the value segment, also the broadest segment. Because the prices are attractive and it is a family store, it can travel far and beyond. It can go beyond the first 100 top cities. So you can open as many stores as the market can take. So it's a big vehicle to capture market share in a short period of time. Footprint we have crossed 200 stores across 100 cities, and Payless has the potential to go well across 100 cities. It could go to tier 2 cities, tier 3 also. We'll experiment.

At Footprint you can find a shoe for Rs. 11000, while Payless we're talking about a tight fashionable range of Rs. 500 to Rs. 2500. Most of the Payless stores are going to be between 1500 to 2000 sq ft.

There are collections every month. So there is something new all the time. And the shop is a far more promotional and fast changing environment. As a country America is far more promotional than India and Payless is a fairly energetic, vibrant and promotional brand. We hope to bring in all that with eight to ten promotions every year related to time, seasons, or festivals. It's all well organised.

Future group acquires supermarket chain Nilgiris

Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd, part of Kishore Biyani’s Future Group, today announced the acquisition of south India-based supermarket chain Nilgiris for an undisclosed sum.

“Future Consumer Enterprise Ltd ((FCEL) today completed the acquisition of the Nilgiris convenience store chain in the southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,” the company said in a statement.

Commenting on the acquisition, Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said, “FCEL’s acquisition of Nilgiris, a leading food and grocery convenience store chain in South India having a unique portfolio of food brands supported by its own manufacturing facilities for dairy and bakery, is another step towards building a robust convenience store network in India.”

He further said: “This acquisition is synergistic as it enables strengthening and expanding convenience stores through franchises in an asset light model as well as brings in new manufacturing capabilities and brands within the company.”

Nilgiris operates a franchisee-operated convenience store chain with 140 outlets in key urban centres in the four southern states and it also owns a portfolio of brands in dairy, bakery, chocolates and staples along with their manufacturing facilities in Bangalore, the statement said.

A select product range of the brand is also retailed through general trade along with in-store bakeries in few stores.

The company manages the back-end operations including procurement, logistics and IT for the stores and operates 8 distribution centres along with a fleet of vehicles, including refrigerated ones that cater to the supply of its own dairy, bakery and chocolate brands to its outlets.

This acquisition by FCEL will lead to geographical expansion of the convenience store network in southern India, as presently its existing footprint is primarily concentrated in north and west India, the company said.

Nilgiris’ branded bakery and dairy products will also be channelised across Future Group’s existing channels including Big Bazaar, Foodhall and Aadhaar and also extended to other modern retailers, the statement added.

Similarly, the FCEL’s existing portfolio of brands including Sunkist, Tasty Treat, Golden Harvest, Premium Harvest, Sach Ektaa, CleanMate and CareMate will be chanellised through Niligiris store network.

Additionally, Nilgiris’ expertise in running a successful franchisee network will be leveraged to expand the existing footprint of convenience stores via a franchisee model.

Fabfurnish.Com To Launch Stores Via Franchise Route

Leading online player in the home furnishings and furniture category, Fabfurnish.com has plans to open modular kitchen and wardrobes stores at the end of this month. All of them will be franchisee run outlets.  Besides its successful online presence, the brand has two stores in Delhi-NCR and two in Bengaluru.

Vikram Chopra, CEO & Founder, Fabfurnish.com says: “Since we are expanding our scope of leveraging our brand, we think of offline as an experience and not as a sales point. This is why, we partner with those who share our vision of creating an experience more than a sales standpoint. We would pick someone who would nurture it and further help us build our brand.  We are looking at opening partner stores in Pune, Hyderabad, Noida, New Delhi and Chennai, as there is an encouraging customer demand in these cities. All of these will be franchise outlets.”

On the offline presence Chopra adds: “As a brand, we want to provide a holistic experience to our consumers, and offline stores help us do that by giving customers a chance to experience the products before they buy. Thus, stores also help us build trust and credibility.”

Brand’s target group is urbane homemaker, in the age-group of 26-45 years, who is tech-savvy, well-informed, and has a taste for good living.