Pasta with tikka, anyone?

Q&A: Paul merrifield

, president and CEO of the Dubai-based format restaurant chain, Hot Brands International is busy evaluating the Indian market for expansion.

The restaurant's current format includes Indian (tandoori), Chinese, Italian, Thai, Japanese and Mongolian, and they are spread over the UAE, Kuwait and Oman.

Merrifield has already tasted the Indian market by starting outlets in the food courts of Inorbit Mall, in Mumbai. In an interview with Business Standard, he talks about Hot Brands International's plans to enter the NCR market and expansion.

You say you have plans to open restaurants in and around Delhi. What format and layouts are you looking at?

We plan to introduce Indian, Chinese and Italian to begin with in Septmber 2005. We are looking at food courts in malls like Centrestage in Noida.

We will start with two-three outlets, each having a 150 sq feet juice centre, a 400 sq ft takeaway counter and a sit-down restaurant in the range of 1,000-4,000 sq feet. Later, we plan to expand through other malls but to begin with we have two-three malls in mind.

But why just malls? How about stand-alone restaurants?

We could, but we prefer malls, at least initially. One reason for this is that they are a big crowd puller and it makes economic and business sense to start your restaurants at these locations.

Actually, people like variety and they would also like to try pizzas and pastas made differently by a foreign company.

In India restaurants open and close very fast. How will you ensure that Hot Brands International stays?

Well, we will be introducing new concepts and flavours. For instance, we will have a pasta station where you can get a combination made according to your choice.

Then we will get in exotic flavours, gravies etc and consumers will have a lot to choose from. We will later expand our cuisine to Thai and Japanese as well.

Besides, we will also have portions in the affordable range of Rs 110-300 between the takeaway and sit-down restaurants. We have experimented with these things in our Mumbai restaurant and they are proving to be successful.

So what are the advantages that you see in bringing Hot Brands to India?

India is one of the most populous countries, and has a robust economy. And people's disposable incomes are rising very fast. And with the number of working women growing, the trend of eating out is catching up.

Also, managing an effective supply chain will be easy as most of the raw materials are available in India at reasonable rates.

Besides, for expansion we are mostly looking at emerging markets of India, China and Russia. In fact, by 2008 we are aiming to have 500 outlets across these three countries.

Will you serve alcohol as well?

We would certainly like to. We will apply for the licence as soon as we get the restaurants started. And if we get the licence we will serve liquor in our sit-down restaurants.

So what is the business Hot Brands International is looking at in terms of revenue?

I will be happy if we make Rs 30,000-40,000 a day from one outlet. The success of Hot Brands International has been roooted in its solid business idea and its investment to build and maintain a strong operations and franchising network.