Indianise the sizzle

Are incoming foreign food chains adequately market-sensitive?

Fresh" tomato sauce from California, slow-roasted coffee beans from London, tacos from Salt Lake City, and perhaps a dash of oomph "" Atlanta-style?

Here's news: a slew of fresh foreign restaurant chains are waiting to tantalise the Indian palate, even as the already-in are in frenetic expansion mode. After lying low for years, KFC suddenly hopes to penetrate the market deeper, with its outlets projected to shoot from 11 to 25 by year-end.

Costa Coffee, the British cafe chain that set shop last year in a tie-up with Ravi Jaipuria's RKJ Group, has already become quite a hangout for both the college-goer and young executive, and so in the face of rivalry from the likes of Barista and Cafe Coffee Day. So when it declares, rather ambitiously, that it plans to open 300 outlets in India in six years, you tend to raise your aromatic cuppa in cheer.

Others have more modest ambitions. Bennigan's Grill and Tavern, an Irish-American fast food chain that opened its first Indian outlet in Delhi last year, plans to open 12 more outlets in the next five-six years.

And then you have the newcomers. Utah-based Tacomaker, for example, is out to put global flavours on your dining platter.

"Mexican food is relatively unknown in India. We carried out extensive research and found that 75 per cent of the market is virgin. However, post-1991, we feel this is a very lucrative market for us," points out Gurpreet Singh Sachdeva of HK Multiplex and Hospitality, its franchisee.

The newcomers' challenge is how to Indianise their fare (or, to use McDonald's original theme, how to "sell the kitchen, not the steak").

While connoisseurs may scoff at shahi paneer pizzas and aloo-tikki burgers, observers assert that going Indian is a must. "Absolutely", agrees Vikas Athri, director development, Om Pizza & Eats, master franchisee for California-based Papa John's Pizza chain.

"You have to Indianise your product. Except our dough and fresh tomato sauce that comes from California, everything we use, the cheeses, vegetables... is Indian," Athri adds.

Other things "" such as the "sizzle" that marketers often refer to "" may be more difficult to localise. One of the biggest global chains looking at India is Hooters. The Atlanta-based player's trademark scantily-clad waitresses may prove a trifle difficult to replicate in India, but that isn't dampening Hooters' ambitions in what it sees as a receptive market.

"I am looking forward to the 'recreation' of this dining atmosphere," Sunil Bedi, managing director of franchisee HOI, has been quoted as saying.

At a press briefing to announce the brand's India plans, Jagdip Ahluwalia, also the executive director of the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Houston, was quoted as adding: "We've got Domino's there, we've got McDonald's there, we've got all these brands out there... there is a window of opportunity that's open. And if we don't grab that opportunity, Europe will."

This seems to be the operating logic for other American chains too. While Planet Hollywood is set to open its first Indian outlet in Mumbai in a few months, Hard Rock Cafe has already soft-launched its restaurant in Mumbai under a franchisee agreement with J Singh of F Bar fame.

The restaurant-goer's palate has rarely got so much attention. And with the Indian fast food market growing at a torrid 40 per cent annually "" though there exist no official studies to confirm this figure "" you wouldn't want to withdraw it anytime soon. Just Indianise the "sizzle", if not the "stake", and you could get yourself a self-perpetuating chain.