Businessworld has a short article about Indian restaurant chains planning to expand their overseas footprints and cater to a clientele beyond the NRIs.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of information and networking services to the private equity and venture capital ecosystem in India. View free samples of Venture Intelligence newsletters and reports.
The growing appetite for Indian “curry” will certainly attract entrepreneurs, says Rajesh Mishra, president, Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India, in Delhi. “Some Nepali food chain selling Indian food in the US earns about $50,000 per month per restaurant,” he says. “This is a huge market. Clearly, the numbers are driving these chains.”
Indeed, new players, such as Mumbai-based restaurateur Sanjeev Kapoor, who opened 17 Khana Khazhana restaurants in New York, are growing. And there is room for more, as “increased competition will only help growth”, says P.R. Shiva Kumar, a partner with Saravana Bhavan, a Chennai-based food chain with 18 overseas eateries.
...But the complexity and costs of carrying out such moves are well worth it. “The business is highly profitable,” says Shiva Kumar, whose company has 27 restaurants in India, but gets 40 per cent of its profits from its 18 overseas restaurants.
Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of information and networking services to the private equity and venture capital ecosystem in India. View free samples of Venture Intelligence newsletters and reports.