“The restaurant trade in India is growing exceedingly fast. There will be a few strong groups that will become national players and we are well-positioned to be among them,” says the upbeat executive director and co-founder of JSM Corporation Pvt Ltd, which is a master franchisee for the restaurant brands in India.
Singh has no doubts that the casual dining business in India is the best bet for an F&B entrepreneur. Taking stock of his brands’ performance, he says Hard Rock Café has done well in every market that it has a presence in India. The first café was launched in Bangalore in 2006, followed by Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Hyerabad, and Singh has planned two more location launches in 2012.
Shiro, an in-house premium lounge bar brand offering Oriental cuisine and exotic drinks, started in Mumbai two years ago and has since moved on to Bangalore and New Delhi. But Singh is cautious about Shiro’s expansion plans. “We are very selective about Shiro’s growth. This year, we are starting one each in Nigeria and Las Vegas,” he points out.
It’s clear that JSM GGC, the joint venture which runs these restaurants, is not keen on churning them out in large numbers. Even in the group’s pizza offering, the California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) chain, Singh intends to open five or six outlets each year.
The American chain, unlike its other well-known players in the business (Pizza Hut and Domino’s) will remain a casual dining restaurant chain offering soups, salads, pizzas and pastas made ‘onsite’ and with ‘fresh ingredients,’ says Singh, making the distinction between CPK and other pizza chains very clear.
Apart from freshness, CPK’s other claim to fame is its celebrity patron guests: Hollywood diva Cameron Diaz or teen sensation Miley Cyrus. While former US President Bill Clinton frequents CPK for his favourite pizza, an outlet in Maryland played host to the first family when President Obama’s daughter celebrated her ninth birthday.
“As a brand proposition, we are unique in India. Apart from the two popular brands, there was no third alternative and now you have a very different proposition. We are far more adventurous than other brands but we will not expand like other brands,” says Singh.
With four CPKs in the country and five more next year, Singh is already looking forward to introducing another restaurant brand to Indian foodies: Trader Vic’s, a Polynesian restaurant chain, and Mai Tai, a line of premium lounge bars. While he’s in the process of tying up with a high-end Japanese restaurant brand with the first of the restaurants to be launched in Mumbai soon, he says Mexican food is also doing well in India.
There’s no doubt that Singh is treading the right path in the food industry. Studies show that Indians, on an average, eat out once in two weeks, while in Jakarta it’s 44 meals a month and in Hong Kong it’s one meal a day. “We have a long way to go in casual dining,” he says.
While there’s no stopping the fast-paced growth of the estimated .3-billion Indian food service industry, growing at about 30 per cent annually, Singh is more worried about the talent needed to run the industry than the rising commodity prices.
“As the country grows, our purchasing power will increase. Therefore our bottom lines may not be impacted, although I wish we could manage our costs better,” he says.
But the challenge staring the industry would be scarcity of skilled talent, he points out. “One has to invest a lot of time and money in training and upgrading skills.” JSM GGC now employs 1,350 people and would double the number next year. There are few training schools and companies have to set up a pretty strong internal training system, is his advice.
Singh is surprisingly averse to experimenting with different formats for food retailing. “I’m not comfortable with the smaller format space.” He’s also not enthused by retailers’ new pet spaces: airports and business parks. “In Hyderabad, we opened an outlet in the airport and shut it and are not very keen on it now. Of course, it’s not an experience that defines airport retail,” he clarifies.
On business and IT parks, he sees the danger of his outlets turning into small niche places. “We have got so much potential for us in traditional locations, so many cities in India. We don’t have to be looking for these kinds of alternative spaces.”
Source: Anjali Prayag, Hindu Business Line, 10 Jan 2012.
Tags:Hard Rock Cafe Franchise, Shiro Franchise, Mai Tai Franchise, CPK Franchise, Trader Vics Franchise, JSM Corporation,
This Blog/Information/Press Release/Information has been posted by Sparkleminds, A Franchise Consulting Company Based At Bangalore, India, Offering Complete Franchise Solutions Nationally and Internationally for more than a decade now.We specialize in Food Franchising In India, amongst our various franchise verticals, providing assistance to the franchise industry at large.Visit www.sparkleminds.com for more details.
