Pulse of the food market

The Kolkata-based Poddar Heritage Group, which has a 15 per cent stake in Gillette India, and promotes the battery brand Duracell in India, runs a host of businesses from travel agency to furniture manufacturing.

Now it's venturing into another unrelated line of enterprise: food.

The Saroj Poddar-promoted group, which has a market capitalisation of Rs 1,000 crore, is set to launch its first Indian quick-service restaurant called Pulse in Noida next month.

"As a group we are interested in doing new business whenever we see a potential," says Akshay Poddar, Saroj Poddar's 28-year-old son and director of Poddar Heritage Group.

With the Rs 35,000 crore restaurant business growing at 15-20 per cent in the country, Pulse Food India Ltd, the company that promotes the Pulse brand, plans to set up 30 outlets within three years.

The company has an investment outlay of Rs 10 crore for the project. "The idea is to build a food chain as India doesn't have too many of them in the quick-service format," says Poddar.

The first 2,800 sq ft, 80-seater restaurant, which will serve vegetarian and non-vegetarian food within the price band of Rs 30 to Rs 100 for a basic meal, will come up at Shoprix mall in Noida.

Four other outlets are expected to come up in Mumbai, Jallandhar, Bangalore and Delhi.

"The idea is to go mass with competitive pricing as the quick-service format is set to boom," says Pulse Foods' CEO Neeraj Jain. He believes that more Indians are eating out for functional needs rather than just for the sake of eating out.

"Our typical consumer is the working couple who wants a quick, affordable meal," he says. Pulse is eyeing clients in the SEC-B category in high density regions.

The company has hired advertising agency rmg david to design the company logo and has set aside Rs 1 crore for promotion.

The company also plans to expand its brand presence by looking at other formats such as food courts, office complexes and small counters.

In the past, Poddar Heritage has had its share of high and lows in joint venture deals. Last month, two of the international brands that it promotes "" Gillette and Duracell "" were taken over by Proctor & Gamble in a $57 billion global acquisition deal.

Two years ago, its deal with Gautier France broke down and the company has, since, launched its own domestic furniture brand called Style Spa.