Competition among various players in the fast food segment– Pizza Hut, Domino?s, and Nirula?s — for a larger share of the market has started hotting up. To grab a bigger slice, while US-based pizza purveyor Domino?s has allocated a sum of Rs 20 crore in order to strengthen its back-end infrastructure and supply chain, another leading pizza chain Pizza Hut will almost double its number of outlets pan-India from the present 136 to 272 over the next five years.
Homegrown fast food chain Nirula?s, which has a major presence in the northern market, also part of this pitched battle, is planning to grow exponentially across the country and will foray into the western market by the year-end with its first outlet in Mumbai, followed by south and east in the next few quarters. The company, which plans to infuse Rs 100 crore over the next three to four years, however, refused to give exact investment figures for its western foray.
Nirula?s, which at present has 60 outlets across India – Delhi and NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Uttranchal, Haryana, Punjab, and Chandigarh – plans to take up the total count of its restaurants to 200 by end of 2009-10. The quick service restaurant, which opened 17 stores last year, aims to come up with 30 more outlets in 2008-09. ??With the expansion of number of outlets in new and existing territories, the company expects to improve its share in the eating out business. Nirula?s also plans to increase its market penetration by opening outlets in tier II and tier III cities as well as highways,?? Nirula?s CEO and managing director Samir Kuckreja said.
Nirula?s achieved 50% revenue growth over the last financial year, of which 15% was due to same store sales growth Y-o-Y.
Taking the pitched battle forward, Domino?s, a franchisee of US-based Domino?s Pizza Inc, whose entire marketing initiatives are focussed towards its delivery segment plans to increase its share in this segment from the present 65% to 70% by the end of 2008-09.
??We will invest Rs 70 crore on back-end infrastructure and supply chain capability and 70 new stores, which would be opened by end of 2008-09. The company would set up three new warehouses at Noida, Bangalore, and Mumbai,?? Dev Amritesh, vice-president (marketing), Domino?s Pizza India Ltd said. The company has also set a revenue target of Rs 1,000 crore by 2010-2011. Domino?s Pizza India, which currently runs 183 stores across 33 cities, plans to invest Rs 250 crore over the next three years to spread out across the country.
