Business Standard

Highway hospitality

Kamat Hotels to invest in Kamfotel budget chain

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Maitreyee Handique New Delhi

Vithal Kamat
Vithal Kamat's is a typical "humble beginnings" story. It is the story of the managing director of the Kamat Hotels India Ltd who got into the right niches at the right time: a chain of value-for-money food joints, restaurant consultancy and five-star eco hotels in Mumbai.

And now he has turned his attention to building budget highway hotels under the Kamfotel brand. The company is investing Rs 20 crore in two, 100-room hotels on the Mumbai-Nashik highway.

"With the government treating road development as a priority, there is lot of opportunity in the highway hotels business," says Kamat.

Kamat Hotels, which is listed on the Mumbai and Chennai stock exchanges, plans to build a Kamfotel after every two-and-a-half hour drive on the road, "We're planning 50 Kamfotel hotels in five years through the franchisee route," says Kamat. The room tariffs will be about Rs 1,500 and the hotel will have a Kamat restaurant.

Cut to the early 1970s. As a young man flushed with ideas and a black belt in karate to boot, Kamat saw over 90,000 people pass by his father's vegetarian restaurant "" Satkar "" in Mumbai's busy Churchgate area.

It was here that he drew up the first business blueprint to expand the family's single restaurant enterprise. The idea was to deliver "sumptuous food at value-for-money prices." But to offer an unlimited Gujarati thali at 90 paise when labour and water prices were rising was a challenge.

"Washing katoris was proving expensive," recalls Kamat. He devised a solution: he spent Rs 20,000 and got somebody to design the stainless steel trough tray. Even today the tray is popularly known as the "Kamat plate". Though Satkar stopped serving the thali, the original "Kamat plate" is in every dhaba today.

Three decades later, the 200 Kamat restaurants the company now owns, continue to serve wholesome dosas and dhoklas at affordable prices and are run by various "uncles and cousins" of Kamat's.

The MD claims that he has offered consultancy to help set up 300 other Indianrestaurants, including Namaskar in Japan and Shaan and Sharuna in London on a turnkey basis.

In the mid 90s, Kamat thought up the idea of entering the hospitality business.

He started The Orchid in Mumbai which is certified as an environment-friendly hotel by the US-based HVS Ecotel and is rated among the five zero-garbage hotels around the world. He also has a management contract to oversee the operations at Uppal's Orchid in Delhi.

And now, Kamat is keen to take the brand name "" Orchid "" overseas with the help of franchisees. "We have finalised plans to open Orchid hotels in Johannesburg in South Africa and Doha in Qatar," he says.

Currently, Kamat is the director of Concept Hospitality Ltd, the company which owns and manages three Ecotel hotel brands "" Orchid (five-star), Rodas (four-star) and Lotus (three-star).

Clearly, Kamat, who entered the hospitality business eight years ago, is on an expansion drive. "Currently we have contracts to build seven hotels in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune for various clients," says Kamat.

"It makes great sense to have an environment-friendly hotel as you recover the money faster. The property consumes 17 per cent less heat and has a higher rate of repeat customers," he says. The Kamfotel chain will follow similar environmental guidelines.


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First Published: Dec 15 2004 | 12:00 AM IST

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