Potbelly Corp Partners With Kwals Group To Open 20 Outlets In India

Popular Russian waffle chain 'WAFL' today said it will soon venture into the Indian market by opening two outlets in the city.

WAFL, which has over 50 Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) outlets all over the world apart from Bengaluru, will also open stores in New Delhi and Surat in the first phase launch.

The company noted that WAFL is already present in Russia, CIS countries, USA, Czeckoslovakia, Ukraine, Mangolia, Gulf countries and was now entering India, through a joint venture between 'MYBusiness Russia' and 'MBC Hospitality Pvt Ltd'.

The first outlet will be thrown open for public on February 3 here, company officials said in a statement.

"We are going to be present in each state of India by 2020. Apart from Gujarat and Rajasthan, all other states will also have non-vegetarian items in the menu. Apart from franchisee stores, we will also come up with our own flagship, company-operated stores”quoted My Business Russia International Business head Adzhai Sharma.

On the company's revenue target, he said in another three years, WAFL proposes to have 250 stores pan India, with a target of Rs 200 crores, and the expansion will also lead to employment generation.

On expansion plans, WAFL said it is set to open 80 outlets with franchisee module, pan-India in 2018.

Stating that the USP of WAFL is its corn based products, it is targeting the untapped Indian breakfast market as well as the conventional fast food market, by serving foodies trendy food at most reasonable prices. “Products like J-Tube, Wafl Pie will enter the Indian market for the first time,” the company said.

"We are positive that Indian market will like our products, we are eyeing pan India expansion" stated Executive Partner Rajeev Chawla.

Passengers at Bhopal airport are all set to get delicious cuisines of international standard. A quality food outlet is likely to come up in the next two months as part of the Airport Authority of India (AAI) scheme of master concessionaire.

A team of architect and the Kanpur-based food company officials visited the airport recently to check what kind of outlets could be set up at the airport. At present, the airport has a small outlet constructed on 28 sqm area. This will be extended to 149sqm under the master concessionaire concept.

“Airport currently has a handful of vendors which bid separately to set up food stalls and retail outlets. Now, there will be a single company under the master concessionaire which has won the bid. Under the agreement, it was clearly mentioned that there must be an international and a national brand associated with the bidder” quoted director of Bhopal airport Flt Lft Akashdeep Mathur.

Under the scheme, 12 airports were selected for master concessionaire scheme. These were Bhopal, Indore, Raipur, Lucknow, Calicut, Thiruvananthapuram, Trichy, Amritsar, Bhubaneshwar, Srinagar, Guwahati and Goa.

For the use of space on airport premises, the winning bidder will pay AAI a concession fee equivalent to the quoted monthly amount over and above the minimum monthly guarantee (MMG) with annual escalation or particular percent of fixed revenue share of the monthly net sales, stated airport officials.

Gourmet Investments, promoted by the Bharti Family Office has tied up with with Ministry of Crab, owned by cricketers Kumara Sangakarra, Mahela Jayawardene and Chef Dharshan Munidasa to bring the iconic Sri Lankan seafood restaurant to the country.

Ministry of Crab has been on the coveted and prestigious "Asia's 50 Best Restaurants" list every year since 2015.

Gourmet Investments CEO Ramit Mittal said “The first outpost of Ministry of Crab will open in Mumbai in May-June 2018, with an investment of Rs 4-5 crore. We are pleased to start our journey in Mumbai. We are planning to bring globally acclaimed dining brands as well as celebrity chefs to India to an audience that travels extensively and is more aware about pedigree international food trends”.

Gourmet Investments COO Deepinder Bhatt said “By the end of 2018, the company plans to indigenously develop and acquire rights for multiple global food and beverage brands, with the next one being Typhoon Shelter conceptualised with Chef Christian Yang”.

Former cricketer Mahela Jayawardene said “Ministry of Crab started as a fun project for Kumar and myself to work on together, along with Dharshan, and we're so happy to see how far it's come. With this new step into India I am excited for the next innings in our journey and hope you'll be bowled over by it”.

Angel network platform Venture Catalysts has facilitated an undisclosed amount of investment in food tech startup The Bohri Kitchen. The seed round in the specialised cuisine startup has seen participation from Anuj Puri of Anarock Consultants, Abhishek Agarwal of Rockstud Capital, Anirudh Damani of Artha India Ventures, F&B veteran Riyaaz Amlani and food chef Rahul Akerkar amongst others.

Started by Munaf Kapadia and his mother in 2014, The Bohri Kitchen offers dishes that are unique to the Dawoodi Bohra community to food connoisseurs through a home dining experience. The start-up makes available legacy family recipes to specialised small groups of gastronomes.

Munaf Kapadia, Founder & CEO, The Bohri Kitchen said “When I first thought of the idea that would materialise into The Bohri Kitchen, I was confident of the viability of such a concept in the market. The response that we’ve had so far has just strengthened that belief. A former Googler, Kapadia is the recipient of the title of Forbes ‘30 under 30’ for creating The Bohri Kitchen (TBK).

Anuj Puri, Chairman of Anarock Consultants who is an investor in the company said “The brand has grown from strength to strength, setting up a delivery kitchen and slowly expanding into the restaurant vertical as well. We are confident that TBK will continue to set new benchmarks in the experiential dining space and garner exponential success.

Through this investment round, Kapadia is also looking to widen the reach of TBK by hiring more skilled workers to help standardise the menus along with his mother.

French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH’s investment arm L Catterton Asia has acquired majority stake in restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani’s Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, promoter of fine dining restaurant brands Smoke House Deli and Social.

The deal has been structured with primary infusion of capital and a secondary share sale. The latter involves existing investors exiting the company or diluting their stakes.

Confirming the development, L Catterton Asia managing partner Ravi Thakran said, “We are delighted to partner with Riyaaz Amlani and Impresario Restaurants to build Social and Smoke House Deli into iconic food and beverage brands both in India and abroad".

Prior to the deal with L Catterton, Amlani owned about 30% of Impresario, while PE investor Beacon India Investors held 36% and restaurant player Mirah Hospitality owned 16%. The remaining stake is split among other smaller investors.

Amlani said, “I’m thrilled to partner with L Catterton which specialises in consumer investing worldwide and have had significant experience and success building F&B brands such as Crystal Jade, Ce La Vi and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen”.

Mid-market private equity firm Gaja Capital has invested Rs 160 crore in premium dining platform Massive Restaurants owned by celebrity food chef Jiggs Kalra and his son Zorawar Kalra. This is the seventh investment for the Mumbai-based investor through its third fund of $240 million.

The round will see Gaja Capital pick a significant minority stake in the company with the promoters retaining their majority stake, according to people aware of the development.

Gaja Capital Managing Partner gopal Jain said “We have picked the premium dining route as our bet in the F&B space. We see premium dining as an opportunity of scale and we have chosen to be on the front end with Massive Restaurants. On the other hand in the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) space we have chosen the supply chain B2B route with Baker’s Circle. We have been able to demonstrate that not only has Gaja Capital managed exits but also delivered handsome returns on its investments. The venture capital ecosystem where thousands of ventures have been created and funded has created a strong pipeline for us. We are keen to carry forward our 2017 pace of investments into the next year”.

Massive Restaurants will use a majority of the capital to fuel its international expansion and is already on track to launch eight restaurants across 14 countries in the next couple of quarters.

Zorawar Kalra, MD of Massive Restaurants said “We have tasted great success in the Indian market and hence our investments are now geared towards building our international portfolio in Middle East, London and the US. Our growth strategy for restaurant expansion will be in the 2:1 ratio in favour of India, in the long term.”

The investment in Massive Restaurants is Gaja Capital’s fifth bet in 2017, a landmark year for the private equity firm which has scored 3 exits through stake sales in TeamLease, CL Educate and John Distilleries.

Gaja Capital originally invested Rs 75 crore for a 25% stake in TeamLease through 2010 and 2011 and Rs 78 crore in CL Educate first in 2007. The PE firm is reported to have raked in returns worth 10 times and 2-3 times respectively on those investments, with an additional 4x return on its investment in John Distilleries through a partial stake sale to Sazerac in October this year.

Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI) has welcomed the Government’s proposal to reduce the GST rate from 18 per cent to 12 per cent, making it uniform for both the air-conditioned (AC) and non AC restaurants. The Association has also appealed to the Govt. to continue providing the Input Tax Credit (ITC) to hotels and restaurants which will help them maintain the prices for the food and beverages on the menu. HRAWI has stated that despite the cost of operations having actually gone up, hotels and restaurants are maintaining old prices on the menu in fear of losing customers.

Dilip Datwani, President, HRAWI said “The move to bring down the GST rate for AC restaurants will definitely encourage the customer to eat out again. We welcome the proposal and thank the Government for considering our appeal. Presently all industries, and not just hotels and restaurants are trying to grapple with GST and the transitionary phase has been a very difficult phase for us. Continuing to provide ITC will help businesses to counter the rising prices on raw material and other utility costs. As of now, none of our vendors have reduced prices or passed on benefits of ITC to us. Additionally, post introduction of GST the costs of operations and raw materials have actually gone up. However many hotels and restaurants have continued offering F&B at the old prices but with the reduction in the GST rate, we will now be able to remain competitive”.

Dilip Datwani also said “As major expenses like electricity, rent, salaries, vegetables, poultry, seafood are exempt from GST, the input credit advantage for restaurants is negligible. So, it is our humble request to the Government that they consider revising the GST rate for restaurants that are part of hotels to 12 per cent in line with other stand-alone restaurants”.

Hotel industry has also appealed that the GST rate on in-house restaurant bills be levied at 12 per cent like it would be for all other stand-alone restaurants.