Growth Of The India Fast Food Industry and The Opportunities it offers.

Ajay Kaul is hungry for time. The 45-year-old CEO of Jubilant FoodWorks, the master franchise for Domino's Pizza in India, looks constantly at his watch, the ticking minutes whetting his appetite. And it figures: Kaul's pizzas have to reach customers in 30 minutes and he wants to open more than 60 new outlets every year.

As he launched Jubilant's 300th outlet in Delhi's Pitampura last month, Patrick Doyle, the global CEO of Domino's Pizza Inc, said, "Our teams in India and Louisiana, USA, are two of the largest and best franchisees." At a growth rate of nearly 42 per cent for the last five years, the company's India operations are its fastest in the world.

Doyle's and Kaul's appetite for India is shared by competitors. Whether it is multinational chains like McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC or homegrown ones like Sagar Ratna, Yo! China, Haldiram's, Bikanervala or Nirula's, they are all racing to open new restaurants. McDonald's, which had 20 outlets in India till 2002, has 187 today. It plans to open 200 more over five years with an investment of Rs 500 crore. Yum! Restaurants, owner of the KFC and Pizza Hut brands, plans to add 15 and 20 outlets respectively.

The story is repeated across the road with Nirula's looking to add 120 new points of presence, Sagar Ratna 35 new outlets by December and Delhi-based Bikanervala and Haldiram's four-five new outlets every year. Even traditional entities like the Bangalore-based MTR Restaurant and the Chennai-based Murugan Idli Shop (MIS) are looking at Delhi and Mumbai, "for the first time in 80 years", according to Hemamalini Maiya, managing partner, MTR Restaurants.

The temptation was just too hard to resist. Maiya says expanding beyond Bangalore is something her late father (who started the restaurant) would never have approved of, but that makes clear business sense. After all, says Gaurav Marya, president, Franchise India, "India is the biggest consumption market in the world." Even chains like Dunkin' Donuts, Popeyes Chicken, Pizza & Co, Swensen's and Burger King are in talks with local partners to enter India.

The eating out market is on an upswing. The rising number of working women and nuclear households, and an increase in general affluence have led to higher discretionary spending on food. According to the Food Franchising Report 2009, 30 per cent of working singles eat out at least once a month, with a majority spending at least Rs 101-150 per outing. Urban Indians now have a repast outdoor six times a month compared to 2.7 times in 2003. Retail consultancy Tech-nopak Advisors says the spend on eating out at 11 per cent is second only to groceries for Indian households.

Even investors are turning to fast food companies. Jubilant FoodWorks' successful IPO in January, where it raised Rs 329 crore, was oversubscribed 31 times. In March, Cafe Coffee Day raised over $200 million (Rs 920 crore) from three private equity funds. "These are very sizeable investments," says Raghav Gupta, president, Technopak Advisors, "and reflect a sense of confidence."

Growth isn't the only change in the food business. The shift from unorganised or street food towards a cleaner, more hygienic environment is one, even as the proliferation of stalls selling steamed corn, doughnuts and even sushi across malls, along with the success of South Indian cuisine in Delhi and butter chicken in the South shows that Indians are willing to experiment. "Even in Chennai, 40 per cent of my customers are north Indians," says S. Manoharan, proprietor, MIS. He plans to have a franchise outlet in Delhi in the next one year.

In the 90s, global fast food firms placed their bets on India, hoping to hook locals on Western food. Yum! entered India with KFC in Bangalore in 1995, but got mired in controversy. Having put that behind, the company worked towards expanding its base and today owns over 60 outlets. KFC has also tailored some dishes for Indian tastes. There's chicken tikka masala pizza, zinger burger, chana crunch snacker, veg pulao and makhni curry, and the recently launched nimbu crushers.

"One of the biggest questions is whether restaurants can localise as every region of India has a different taste," says B. Narayanaswamy, president, Ipsos Indica Research. Selling ethnic food on a national scale hasn't been easy in a country historically used to a variety of dishes. However, localising is not only about the palate, but also about pricing. "Value is a big point," says Gupta. "Compared to a basic burger, if you get say a thali for Rs 50, people will opt for that." To counter that, Domino's re-launched its 'Pizza Mania' offer, serving pizzas at Rs 35.

Clearly, India is not all about pizza and burgers. Ethnic Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chains too have a huge following. However, unlike their Western counterparts, home grown chains have largely been restricted to specific regions. Haldiram's, for instance, is planning to expand first in and around the NCR region. "That itself can absorb 10-15 more restaurants. Later we will look at Amritsar, Ludhiana and Chandigarh, areas we are familiar with," says A.K. Tyagi, president of its FMCG business.

Going national isn't easy. "All McDonald's burgers taste the same. How many restaurants can do that with a thali" says Gupta. The issue is one of "huge logistics", says Maiya, who has just hired a food technologist. For instance, making dosa batter and preserving it is a huge challenge. Moreover, raw materials are usually procured from one source, over generations. MTR procures its rice from a particular shop. To change that for Delhi or Mumbai would mean changing the entire methodology, as the different rice would taste different.

"Many of my customers have breakfast in Chennai and supper in Singapore," says Manoharan, "they expect the same taste everywhere."

While MNCs have professionalised their back-end through centralised commissaries, where food is merely assembled, Sandeep Kohli, founder of NCR-based Orange Hara chain of restaurants, says that the back-end of many restaurants is primitive, almost like a "big halwai shop". Instead, the food business should be technology- and process-driven. Even family-run chains are now waking up to 'heat and eat'.

But all that belongs to the first phase of establishing the brand and looking at growth. Today, most food brands have moved into phase II, which is penetration. Phase III is marked by the saturation point, where companies may need to overhaul menus, at least partially, and innovate. Much of the second phase growth will come from tier II and III cities where eating out is still an occasion.

Says Vikram Bakshi, MD, McDonald's India and franchisee for the North and East regions, "We don't plan to tweak our menu too much. Now we will grow to new areas and increase our concentration in areas where we are less spread." The response from tier II and III cities is overwhelming. Last year the company opened an outlet in Amritsar. Consultants said it was a city which loved Punjabi food, so the company opted for a smaller, 100-cover set-up. Six months later, Bakshi feels a second restaurant is needed.

The other thing is catching 'em young. Fast food chains are targeting consumers early so that they stay for 15-20 years. Ask Panipat's Nidhi and Uday Nath. Earlier they would eat out at the local sit-down restaurants over weekends, the few entertainment options available in the city. Today their choice of dining is largely driven by their five-year-old daughter Tara. So the couple ends up giving in to what has become a near-standard experience among parents world over: McDonald's.

"The children like it, so we end up coming here at least once a week," says Nidhi. "This is a generation that has grown up on McDonald's," says Purnendu Kumar, associate vice president, Technopak Advisors. But that too reflects the lifestyle changes that have taken place over the last decade.

That may not always translate into numbers for the companies. For instance, three years have passed since the opening of the first McDonald's outlet at Panipat, which was something of a mini cultural spectacle where families lined up to have their pictures taken with Ronald McDonald, but the outlet itself is a laggard in terms of sales.

Bakshi has an explanation for that. Indians eat out far less frequently than other nationals. "Even in urban homes, eating out is seen as an occasion or an indulgence," he says. Compared to this, countries in South Asia have always had the concept of eating out, either at restaurants or pavement stalls. In Bangkok, people eat out an average 44 times a month, while in Jakarta the frequency is 14-15 times. However, with that changing, companies are more bullish. Says Kaul, "While China had been growing at 5-10 stores a year, the explosion of growth in India is far more recent. In the next five-seven years, we will take our count from 296 to 700 stores."

With changing lifestyles of young Indians, also comes another opportunity for growth. Catching the consumers where they are. This means the growth of travel retail. After malls, fast food eateries are targeting airports, highways, railway stations, corporate parks, clubs, fuel stations, etc. "With limited time, customers need to be tapped wherever they go," says Niren Choudhary, MD, Yum! Restaurants India. The company has set up express delivery counters at airports. Even Sagar Ratna is exploring an express model by next year, says CFO K.S. Suresh. "Currently two people spend an average 30 minutes in the restaurant. This will reduce the time to 12 minutes approximately." Home delivery is another big area, growing at 15-20 per cent.

But the fast food retail industry is faced with many hurdles, too. The main pain point is the high cost of real estate. Add to that rising input costs; companies claim their margins are getting squeezed. While the global standard is 10-15 per cent of sales as rentals, in India it goes as high as 20-25 per cent. Says Narayanaswamy, "QSRs follow a revolving door concept, which is come, buy and leave. But India has more of a dine-in culture, which adds to the real estate costs." Kaul says that most of the new Domino's outlets, especially in tier II and III cities, come with a dining area.

"It's a business of patience, not one of making money," says Shyam Sunder Aggarwal, MD, Bikanervala. When that is perfected, there are changing customer preferences to deal with. As consumers taste global cuisine, they want the real thing here. Ask Ashish Kapur, founder of Yo! China. Before Yo! came along in 2003, no one had been successful at doing a fast food Chinese restaurant. Changing tastes and dipping footfalls, however, forced them to change their look and feel, which is a more upscale casual dining kind of restaurant.

"Seven years ago we were serving dimsums and combos," he says, "today it is more khau suey (ingredients served separately) and sizzlers and claypots that people want." Having changed helped. Today their footfalls are up 35 per cent. Kapur also something else going for him: a bit of diversity. Needless to say, customers are 'lovin' it'.

Tags:Fast Food Franchise, Fast Food Franchise,Restaurant Franchise, McDonalds, Haldirams, Bikanervala,Nirulas,Sagar Ratna, Dominos,Yo China,Murugan Idli Shop,MTR, Donkin Donuts,Popeyes,Burger King,Food Franchising,
Source:India Today, Nandini Vaish.