Optimistic about its expansion plans, Impresario Handmade Restaurants, which owns popular brands like SOCIAL and Smoke House Deli, is planning to open 14-16 new outlets across India in FY23. This would be in addition to the 6-7 franchise-based outlets planned during the current fiscal.
As of now, the company has a total of 63 outlets, of which it owns 46, while 17 (Mocha) are franchise-based. The company is currently present in 18 cities.
“In FY23, we hope to add another 14-16 outlets and thereafter, we hope to add over 20 outlets next year. The Mocha franchise will see another 6-7 outlets this fiscal,” Riyaaz Amlani, founder and CEO, Impresario Handmade Restaurants, told FE.
Amlani said the company is looking to expand not only in the metros but also in tier-2 cities. “We intend to go to Kolkata and Hyderabad. We are also entering Dehradun, Jabalpur and Mangalore,” he said.
While Impresario could reach only 40% of its pre-Covid revenues in FY21 and 76% in FY22, Amlani said he is expecting to end FY23 with revenues of nearly Rs 650 crore. The restaurant industry is currently valued at Rs 4.24 lakh crore, according to National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).
“I think the business has gone past pre-Covid levels now. Most restaurants we know reported 110-120% of pre-Covid levels in February, March and April. May has been fantastic as well,” he said, adding that April was the best month in Impresario’s history in terms of revenues.
Amlani said the pandemic has been rough on restaurants as 35% of all existing restaurants closed down, resulting in thousands of job losses. “Restaurants were the most impacted as during lockdowns, they were the first to close and last to open,” he pointed out. “But there are some resilient business models,” he said.
Apart from SOCIAL and Smoke House Deli, Impresario’s restaurant portfolio includes Anti SOCIAL, Salt Water Cafe, Souffle S’il Vous Plait, Slink & Bardot, Prithvi Cafe and Mocha.