"Real estate cost is a serious issue"

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: time in 2007 and since then we have had four different campaigns with the latest campaign on Zinger burger featuring ace cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan. Our TV campaigns have been supported by advertising on the Internet, radio and mobile.

With the benefit of hindsight, what were the early mistakes of KFC and what lessons did you learn from them?

A limited menu and limited focus on value were probably our shortcomings. However, since then we have consistently worked on sprucing up our menu and pricing of our products. Today, we serve a wide variety of chicken and vegetarian products and our uniqueness is that every chicken dish is prepared with 100% whole muscle chicken, which sets us apart.

At a time when middle class consumers are becoming increasingly weary of spending money... given the overall inflationary conditions... what is KFC doing to keep the footfalls trooping in?

The current inflationary scenario has certainly impacted consumer sentiment, which in turn has had a ripple effect across sectors. However, we haven’t seen any negative impact of this on our business.

This is probably because while eating out is here to stay due to changing lifestyles, people are foregoing premium dining out options in the favour of QSRs (quick service restaurants) like ours, because we offer better value. Looking at this trend we have upped our marketing investments and launched our latest Zinger campaign.

KFC’s sister chain Pizza Hut has expanded by leaps and bounds, while KFC seems more cautious. Why?

Post re-launch in 2006, KFC has progressed at almost the same pace as Pizza Hut in its formative years. We have big plans for the brand in India and the first milestone is to grow our network to 100 stores by 2010.

Are real estate costs an issue in India?

Yes, it is a serious issue. In fact, in India we have European rentals and products priced in Indian rupees! Real estate cost continues to be one of the biggest cost line in our profit and loss. We have accepted the challenge and taken the current softening of prices as an opportunity for accelerating our growth.

How many outlets do you have at present? Which regions do you sell more?

Currently we have 43 restaurants in 10 cities. The major portion of our business continues to come from the metros.

What is your average footfall on weekdays and on weekends?