In a bid to revive its confectionary business, Ahmedabad-based Bhagwati Banquets and Hotels (BBH) is set to go the Cafe Coffee Day way. The company will set up about 150 cafe-cum-bakery outlets in cities like Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune in next one year.
"While we had been running a few bakeries in Ahmedabad and around, we were losing out on our confectionaries business. Therefore, in an effort to revive it we will be coming up with cafe-cum-bakeries on the lines of CCD and Barista," said Narendra Somani, CMD, Bhagwati Banquets and Hotels Ltd.
The quick service restaurant (QSR)-cum-bakery format will see an investment of Rs 25 crore in next one year. "Mostly the investment will be in setting up outlets as well as confectionary production facilities in cities where the outlets will be opened. We are looking at major cities in the western part of the country initially and will later expand in other parts," said Somani.
To begin with, about 150 outlets will come up in next one year in Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Vapi and Valsad, among other cities.
For the new venture, BBH is also setting up a special purpose vehicle called 'TGB Bakers and Confectionaries', said Somani. Further talking about its hotel-cum-convention centre business, Somani said, "Our latest venture in Surat has had high operating costs which led to some poor financial results for the fiscal 2011-12. However, with the second year things should smoothen out for us."
Last year, the hospitality group had launched a 5-star deluxe hotel convention centre and club in Surat.
Spread across an area of 600,000 sq ft, the property is built at an investment of Rs 200 crore, and houses one of the largest convention centre with more than 100,000 sq ft of pillar-less convention space, apart from 162 deluxe rooms and eight suites, ballrooms, banquets, conference rooms, manicured lawns, three multi cuisine restaurants, 24 hours coffee shop and boutique shops
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For the fiscal 2011-12, BBH pegged a turnover of Rs 165 crore and a net profit of Rs 5.16 crore.
Apart from TGB Surat, Bhagwati Group also owns four star category TGB hotels in Ahmedabad and Rajkot.