If the IPO route is chosen, Domino’s will be the first publicly traded fast food retail chain on the stock exchanges of India.

Nearly, 14 years after its foray into the country, Domino’s Pizza is among the most admired and fastest growing multi-national consumer brands in urban India. It is currently (as of August 2009) the largest fast food chain employing a work force of around 6,000 persons and operating 274 quick service restaurants (QSR) across 54 cities, in 20 states and UTs, of the country. The company is planning to expand network by adding 70 new restaurants to the retail chain.

The first Domno’s Pizza restaurant was launched in January, 1996 at New Delhi. Apart from quality of its pizzas, the brand has earned its reputation as a ‘home delivery’ specialist capable of delivering its pizzas within 30 minutes.

The world’s largest $450 million Latin American chicken quick service restaurant chain, founded in 1971 in Guetmalan, offers “Flavor You Can’t Campero” and serves over 85 million customers every year at its 300-plus restaurants stores in 12 countries around the globe.

Pollo Compero, according to its Executive Vice President Gustavo Duran, is in advanced stage of negotiations with two local groups to set up restaurants under franchisee model in India. The retail chain is planning to set up 10 restaurants across the country by 2012. The first franchisee restaurant of the chain is likely to be unveiled in the third quarter of the calendar year. Indian franchisee will be responsible for making all the investment required for setting up Pollo Compero restaurants in India.

“We have already registered our brand with the authorities and our first restaurant will come up at Delhi by the third quarter of next year. We are in advanced stages of negotiations with a couple of local groups with the plan of setting up 10 restaurants by 2012,” said Duran to PTI.

Pollo Compero is looking at India as a major market for growth. It expects transactions of up to $100,000 per store per month, said Duran. “It is important for us to grow quickly for achieving volumes and revenue returns,” he added.

“Besides our famous global ranges including fried chicken, our Indian outlets would also have a range of vegetarians’ fare including salads,” said Duran.

In a related development, Amit Burman, Dabur’s Vice-Chairman, who has made strategic investment Lite Bite Foods, said that his company is planning to launch Pollo Campero in India by November.

“With Pollo Campero, our offerings to our customers will be complete, as this adds the fried chicken menu to our basket,” Burman said.

Encouraged by success of the US-based quick service restaurant (QSR) chains like KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken), McDonalds, and Pizza Hut, a number of their QSR conterparts like Church’s Chicken, Round Table Pizza (5th largest US pizza chain), and Papa Johns (over 3,000 restaurants worldwide) and CKE Restaurants Inc, as well as other food restaurant chains like Tropical Sno (shaved ice brand), and The Melting Pot (premier fondue restaurant brand), according to Nandi, are looking for setting shop in India’s growing consumer market. They too want to follow ‘franchisee’ model like their competitors for foraying into India.To assist potential Indian franchisees in establishing “new and profitable commercial relations” with such US companies that are keen to enter India, the US Commercial Services in India has designed a unique programme. The programme is called “Focus Franchising.” Through this programme, the US-based companies will help local franchisees to find equipment packages, obtain guidance on site selection and restaurant-level marketing. These companies will also offer training assistance and guidance to Indian franchisees.

Domino’s Pizza India, the master franchisee of the US-based Domino’s Pizza in South Asia, was founded 15 years ago by Bhartias of Jubilant Organosys Group in 1995. The prestigeous “Hewitt Best employer Survey 2009″ has recently adjudged the Indian company as the best employer in the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) Industry in India.

Domino’s has established its reputation as the fastest delivering pizza brand in India, promising execution of pizza orders in less than 30 minutes. The pizza brand is currently a market leader commanding around 45 per cent share of Rs 675 crore pizza business in India.

The Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) retail chain that serves over 100,000 customers every day is presently operating 270-odd stores across 58 cities of India. The brand is planning expansion of the network of its stores to 310 by 31st March 2010.

Apart from offering pizzas at affordable prices, the company has always believed in following the strategy of ‘Think local. Act regional.’ In addition to introducing toppings that suit taste buds of Indian customers, the company has also recently introduced a range of pastas to compliment its range of product offerings in India. This will help the brand to expand overall business as pastas are fast gaining in popularity among young people, who constitute bulk of its customers.

According to Niren Chaudhary, Managing Director of its Indian subsidiary Yum! Restaurants India, the company will expand its present strength of 50 KFC restaurants by ten-fold to 500 KFC restaurants by 2015. Apart from KFC, the quick service food retailer also own the globally known restaurant brands of Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. A&W Restaurants (Hamburgers) and Long John Silver’s (Seafood) brands are also from the global QSR leader’s stable.

Unveiling the blueprint of expansion, while inaugurating the 50th Indian outlet of KFC restaurant in India at Chennai, Niren Chaudhary said that the company is looking at opening 100 outlets by end 2010 and 300 outlets by 2011. KFC follows a mixed (company and franchise) model of ownership and management model for its restaurant outlets. Each KFC outlet requires an average investment of Rs 3 crore.

While, KFC will focus on big metro cities for its growth, it will continue to put emphasise on affordability and innovation to address the needs of young people between 19 and 29 years of age, who constitute its core customers.

The company has been quite happy with the growth of its brands in India. While, KFC grew by 20 per cent over the last year, the growth for ‘Pizza Hut’ (bigger and more famous), according to Chaudhry, was 6 to 7 per cent.

Buoyed by its performance in the country, the world’s largest restaurants retailer, which accounts for $14 billion in global turnover, has decided to unveil its third restaurant brand in India. The first restaurant of ‘Taco Bell’ brand, which specialises in Mexican delicacies, is scheduled to be launched at Bangalore before the end of this calendar year.

Taco Bell, according to Caudhry, will be introduced as a new concept for the young foodies in India. The brand will undertake expansion only after testing the local market.

“The Indian customer is waiting for new concepts in the quick service restaurant (QSR) segment. Besides, the Mexican delicacies will have a sure market in India with their spicy food,” said Chaudhary.

The business, which was badly affected due to decline in demand as a consequence of global economic downturn, resulted in closure of over 100 stores in the last 12 or so months across the country. Apart from draining resources, these under performing stores were incurring huge expenses on salaries and rentals, resulting in non-viable operations.

The days of closing down of store are now behind the company and it has again begun to expand its retail network, though cautiously.

“The period of shut downs is now over. We have opened five large format stores during past three months and all have reported sales more than double the normal sales rate. So we are optimistic about revival,”  said SanjivGoenk, Vice Chairman of the Company, while speaking to reporters in New Delhi.

Although, the sales are showing signs of revival, they are still not enough to take the company “out of woods,” said Goenka. While, the company has recorded growth of 18 per cent in the same-store-sales, in the last 3 months, however, there is still a need for them to grow further. The costs should also come down substantially to make the operations profitable.

“Rentals are still very high despite dropping by an average 20 per cent or so,” said Goenka (ET report). The company has so far been able to prune rental costs by 12 per cent, according to Goenka.

Spencer’s is looking at breaking even its operations at store level within the next 6 month, while the break even at the company level, according to the report, is expected within a period of the next 12 months.

Under the circumstances, the company is cautious on expanding its network. While, the retailer has opened 5 new stores in the last 3 months, it is planning to set up another 10 during the financial year, at an investment of Rs 100 crore.

In order to raise further resources, Spencer’s is looking at diluting 10 per cent of its equity in favour of private investors. It is believed to have already begun talking with a few investors in this regard. The company will look at raising equity through IPO only after it achieve break-even. Spencer’s is also exploring induction of a multi-national retail player partner to sore up its back-end operations. The tie-up could be lines of Bharti-Walmart joint venture.

Founded 19 years ago on the 27th October, 1991 with the unveiling of its first men’swear store in Andheri, Shoppers’ Stop, is owned by leading hospitality and real estate player K Raheja group. Shoppers Stop is among the country’s pioneering and leading organised retailing company that currently operates several multi-format lifestyle retail chains, across the country.

Nagesh’s movement from an ‘executive’ position to a ‘non-executive’ position is part of succession planning of retail business within the group. Nagesh, who has been working for 19 years with the group, is looking forward to spending part of his time on personal and social interests.

According to the new organisational restructure, while Nagesh will continue to remain on the company’s Board of Directors (now, as non-executive director), he will also play the role of a strategic advisor to the management. Nagesh will also be guiding the management team as its mentor. Nagesh will also continue to hold the currently held positions of chairman and vice chairman respectively in Crossword Bookstores Ltd. and Hypercity Retail (India) Ltd- both part of the group’s retail business.

In the new organisation structure, Govind Shrikhande, who is currently working as chief executive of the company, will also rise to become President and CEO, of the company. This position is currently held by Nagesh.

Apart from being an exercise in succession planning, the process of restructuring the organisation, according to Nagesh, will nurture talents to run the company as well as ensure that there are CEOs and MDs in the making for the group.

Shoppers Stop– professionally managed company– has Chandru L Raheja, as its chairman and his sons Ravi C Raheja and Neel C Raheja as its Directors on its board.

“In India there is a propensity for good food. It may not be a volume market but would be a niche market, which is expected to grow with time. This store would cater to a target audience that has a penchant for experimental food,” said Sanjiv Goenka, vice chairman, RPG Enterprises, while speaking on the occasion of inauguration of the new format store. RPG Enterprises is a Rs 150 billion diversified industrial and business conglomerate RPG (R P Goenka) group.

The 1,500 sq ft speciality gourmet SIS store is located inside the retailer’s 72,000 sq ft large flagship store in South City Mall of the metropolis.

The new format store offers a wide array of around 4,000 products comprising gourmet biscuits, breads, confectioneries, fresh fruits, vegetables, fruit juices, cheese, baby cereals, tea, coffee, chocolates, pastas, and essential ingredients for exotic cuisines of Thailand, China, Indonesia, Srilanka, America, Chile, France and Italy, among others. A ‘deli’ counter also offers different types of chilled and frozen ham, salamis and bacon, among other specialities.

There is a live kitchen area in the new format store as well. This area has been set up with a view to promote exotic recipes of gourmet food created by professional chefs.

Spencer’s Retail is planning to open six more such gourmet stores, among others, at Gurgaon, Bangalore and Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Spencer’s has earmarked an investment of Rs.3 crore on this format during this financial year. The company is expecting to earn a revenue of Rs.4 crore from this initiave as the new SIS format store is expected to generate a per sq ft revenue of Rs 1,500.

Yum Restaurants, the franchisee, according to a newspaper report, had agreed with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which allowed to operate in India in 1993, to bring in a total foreign currency investment of $80 million in two tranches of $40 million each over a period of seven years. However, the company brought an investment of only $35 million.

The Enforcement Directorate, which investigates and initiates prosecutions against foreign exchange violations in India, as such, has served a notice seeking explanation for default on Yum! Restaurants.

“Our probe found that the firm brought in only about $35 million in all. This amounts to both a foreign exchange and an FIPB licence violation,” said an official of the Enforcement Directorate.

The violation could lead to a payment of Rs 1,920 crore (around $ 400 million) including Rs 1,252 crore ($260 million) in penalties.

Yum! has also been asked to explain evasion of service tax on services offered the brands’ restaurant outlets in the South Asian countries of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mauritius and Bangladesh.

Additional violations of Yum! relate to sale of franchisee establishments and payment of royalty to its parent company in the US.

“Yum! is a responsible global company that has been operating legitimately in the country for more than a decade. We comply with all applicable laws of the land and are committed to investing and building our brands in the country in an ethical manner,” said a spokesperson of Yum! Restaurants. “We are examining this before deciding on an appropriate course of action,” added the spokesperson.

Barista Lavazza is setting up new eateries on either side of Murthal village in Haryana, located on busy Delhi -Karnal highway, that boasts of several dhabas (local eateries serving fresh hot meals), says a recent BS report.

Barista Lavazza will be competing with several dhabas that offer traditional food favourites like paratha, dal makhani, tandoori roti and lassi to travellers on their way to Karnal, Chandigarh, and Shimla. Apart from offering coffee and cake, the new Barista Lavazza eateries will also offer paratha and butter milk, among others, to compete with local dhabas operating along the road. This will, however, be Barista’s second highway store as it already runs a similar store on Mysore- Bangalore highway.

“Coffee, according to Barista’s Chief Operating Officer Sanjay Coutinho, will remain the core promise that Barista Lavazza delivers on,” however, the retail chain “will continue to deliver on the core promise of a truly Italian coffee experience in a warm, friendly and relaxed environment.”

Barista Lavazza, operates a coffee chain of 215 Espresso Bars and 15 Crème cafes. These recently opened Crème cafes require larger space (over 1,600 sq ft) compared to about 1,200 sq ft of Espresso Bars. Crème cafes also remain open for longer hours than Espresso Bars and offer an elaborate food menu — breakfast options, sandwiches, salads, pastas, pizzas and lasagna.

Barista Lavazza is competing in an estimated Rs 400 crore organised coffee cafe chain market with the likes of ‘Cafe Coffee Day’ and ‘Mocha’ coffee chains. The entry into highway eateries business is an attempt of the coffee chain to expand the size of cake as overall size of cooked food business may be running into thousands of crores.

Planet Retail Holdings Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture between Kishore Biyani  (49 per cent) and V N Sharma (an Indonesian resident of Indian origin), operates several retail chains in lifestyle segment for products covered under fashion and sports categories. While, the JV operates Planet Sports, Sports Warehouse and The Athlete’s Foot under sports segment, it operates Guess, Next and Women’s Secret, among others, in fashion segment. The company had recently ventured into beauty segment with the launch of The Body Shop stores in India. Prior to Mark & Spencer’s tieup with Reliance, Planet Retail was also operating 14 stores of the UK-based iconic fashion and homeware brand in India.

According to Kishore Biyani, Planet Retail JV had to be terminated because Pantaloon is already in a sports business, which has now become a wholly owned subsidiary of Pantaloon.

Blue Food, on the other hand, operates several restaurant chains under brand names of Bombay Blue, Noodle Bar and Copper Chimney, among others. The JV with Blue Foods, operating under the name of Pan India Food Solutions, had to be terminated because Blue Foods has already merged into a different entity.

According to Sunil Kapur, chief executive officer of Blue Foods, no operational or management changea are envisaged as a consequence of termination of the JV. It may be recalled that Indivision Capital, a private equity (PE) firm, had agreed to invest Rs 100 crore in Blue Foods in October 2008.

“We are not excluding non-vegetarians, we are including all those vegetarians who would not come to our outlet because we served non-vegetarian food. Besides, we believe in going with the sentiments of the place and our dip stick survey showed that this is what people wanted,” said Sanjay Countinho, Chief Operating Officer, while giving details of the change.In Ahmedabad, a large number of high-end customers, particularly those following the tenets of Jain religion, are extremely sensitive to taking the food prepared in mixed (Veg+ Non Veg) kitchens. Even, McDonald, another global retail chain of QSRs, has opened a restaurant outlet in the city that has two separate kitchen; one each for preparing veg and non-veg food items.

Barista Lavazza appears to be aggressive on expanding its chain in Gujarat. It plans to open 12 new company-owned restaurants at an average cost of Rs 50 lakhs each. Apart from the happening S G Highway of Ahmedabad, the retailer has identified Surat and Vapi among the possible locations for opening new cafe restaurants. Barista Lavazza is also planning to launch soft alcoholic drinks in its select Crème outlets, though it is not very keen on increasing its presence in malls, where there is uncertainty on footfalls. The retailer may also set up retail outlets in metro stations, airports and places where the human traffic is assured.

The company has proposed to pay aggregate annual compensations of Rs 4 crore (around $800,000) to B S Nagesh and of Rs 3 crore (around $600,000) to Govind Shrikhande.

B S Nagesh, who has been reappointed as Managing Director of the company from April 1, 2009 to March 31, 2010, according to the proposal, if approved, will get an annual salary and performance-linked incentive/reward or bonus of Rs 4 crore, while Govind Shrikhande, who has been reappointed as whole-time director and designated as ‘Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer’ of the company for three years from July 29, 2009 will get an annual salary and performance-linked incentive/reward or bonus of Rs 3 crore.

Interestingly, the approval of the shareholders for increased compensation is being sought by the company at a time when on the one hand the retail sector as a consequence of economic downturn is reeling under severe pressure, and Shoppers Stop itself has reported a loss of Rs 64 crore in the financial year 2008-09 on the other. Instead of showing growth, the company, which witnessed a decline of 15 per cent in footfalls during the last quarter fiscal 2009 (ended March 31, 2009), has reported a loss of 3 per cent in ’same store sales’ for the quarter.

Shoppers Stop, which began operations in October, 1991 from its first store in Andheri Mumbai, apart from the flagship retail chain under the same brand name, also operates several other speciality retail businesses. Home Stop, Crossword, Mothercare, MAC, Clinique & Estee Lauder, among others, are the speciality retail chains operated by the company either on its own or in partnership/ licensing/ franchise arrangements with global brands/ retailers. Despite several firsts to its credit, the company has not been able to scale up its operations at the same pace as some of its competitors like Pantaloon Retail of Future Group. Against over 12 million sq ft space of Future group, Shoppers Stop is still occupying below two million sq ft. of retail space.

Shopper Stop also has financial and management interest in ‘HyperCity’ hypermarket format retail chain owned by the group. The group has recently closed down the operations of ‘Brio’ (F&B), Desi Cafe (F&B), and ‘Argos’ (Catalogue Retail) retail chains.

The retailer handles a rich portfolio of over 400 local and international lifestyle brands under several product categories that among others include fashion (apparel and accessories), personal care (beauty care including skin care), home and travel ware (home decor, kitchenware, appliances, luggage), food, grocery, and gifts.

While, Life, Kashish, Vettorio Frantini, Elliza Donatein, Haute Curry, i Jeans Wear, Insense, Mario Zegnoti, Acropolis, Indi-Visual and Push & Shov, are some of the private lifestyle labels, MAC, Lancome, Chanel, Clinique, Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit and Frich Connection, among others, are the global brands that are sold by the retailer at its stores.

The retailer is currently operating 27 department format stores under the flagship Shoppers Stop brand, while it is also operating 51 stores of ‘Crossword’ chain and 22 stores of ‘Mothercare’ brand.

Impressio Entertainment and Hospitality, which currently operates 18 outlets of a chain of ‘Mocha (coffees and conversations) coffee bars, across the country, opened its second “Mocha Mojo” coffeee bar store, occupying 3,000 sq ft in Chennai on Monday, the 25th May, 2009. The store located at Indira Nagar, Adyar, offers the looks and the feel of the retro era of the 70s. The first Mocha Mojo coffee bar store is located in Mumbai. The company is looking at setting up six Mocha Mojo outlets in metro and mini-metro cities including New Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The New Delhi outlet is expected to come up in the next month.

“Mocha Mojo,” which evolved from the flagship brand “Mocha” is a coffee bar with a difference. Mojo, which means ‘your magic’ is focusing on offering a wide range of health foods, including coffees made from skimmed and soya milks, low-calorie desserts made from sugar substitutes, cocolates and meals, as well as an assortment of organic and raw foods, among others.

The Rs 60 crore Impressio, owned and promoted by its Managing Director Riyaaz Amlani, is looking at launching eight different brands of coffee bars and restaurants, across the country, in the next three years. The group hopes to set up a total of 100 restaurants and coffee bars of these different food brands during the period. Currently, the group operates a total of 28 outlets of different brands in nine cities across the country.

The group traces its roots from the opening of its first coffee bar store under the flagship brand of “Mocha” at Churchgate, Bombay, in 2000. Mocha coffee bar, which is promoted as ‘a coffee shop for the soul’ is claimed to have been inspired by the ‘Quahveh Khannehs of Morocco and Turkey.’ Mocha is a full service restaurant chain that does not believe in doing a ‘cop-pasting’ job while designing its outlets. No two Mocha outlets are set to a fixed pattern or a theme. Each of the coffee bar outlet, occupying 3,500 sq ft space on an average, thus, takes pride in claiming to be different in its theme and presentation than the other.

Impresario has also set up an Italian food restaurant called ’Del Italio.’ It hopes to set up 22 more outlets of Del Italio in the next 3 to 4 years. Italian, Indian, and Chinese cuisines are among the three most favourite cuisines of the world.

Impressio, though no time frame has been set, is also looking at expanding into neighbouring areas overseas like Dubai and Colombo, among others.

McDonald’s India, the wholly Indian subsidiary of the US-based quick service restaurants chain McDonald’s International, has decided to expand its operations within India. Currently, the company, which was set up in 1996, is operating 158 restaurants through two joint venture companies managed by Amit Jatia (Hard Castle Restaurants) in the South & the West and Vikram Bakshi (Connaught Plaza Restaurants) in the North & the East. Majority of McDonald’s restaurants in India are located in the North & the East regions of the country.

The quick service food retailer, according to Vikram Bakshi, Managing Director and joint venture partner (North and East), will set up 40 new restaurant outlets during the current financial year of 2009-10.

“We are continuing with our growth strategy and plan to open 40 more restaurants this fiscal,” said Bakshi, while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a CII conference in New Delhi.

“We have currently 158 restaurants in the country and our aim is to continue to expand and grow in the Indian market,” added Bakshi.

The new restaurants are likely to entail an investment of around Rs 150 crore. According to Bakshi the company, despite economic slowdown saw a YOY growth of over 25 per cent, last year.

McDonald’s India has developed a menu especially for India with vegetarian selections to suit Indian tastes and preferences. McDonald’s does not offer any beef or pork items in India. In the last decade it has introduced some vegetarian and non-vegetarian products with local flavors that have appealed to the Indian palate.

McDonald India is part of the world’s leading food service retailer, which operates more than 31,000 restaurants across 119 countries and serves over 50 million customers every day.