Spreading base over 20 new outlets

IN CONVERSATION

Pizza Hut is moving away from its "Good times, great pizzas" positioning to a "treat" platform. Arvind Mediratta, chief marketing officer, Yum! Restaurants, that owns the Pizza Hut and KFC brands, spoke to Business Standard about the change in positioning and the potential of the Indian market

What is the reason behind the change in positioning?

The change in positioning is in keeping with a concept we call "customer mania". Our focus is on the customer and making them feel special and pampered, and so we have come up with the "treat no one can beat" approach. Eating out in India is often associated with a treat, and by taking the treat platform, we are raising the bar high, which would be difficult for people to duplicate.

Tier two cities feature prominently on your expansion plans.

Yes, Pizza Hut is an aspirational brand and the recent restaurants that we have opened in cities like Hubli, Mysore and Kanpur have been doing well. This despite keeping the prices the same as the urban restaurants. We see huge potential in these towns and they will be growth drivers.

Also, to increase accessibility, we are introducing bilingual menus in some of these restaurants so people aren't too intimidated to come to Pizza Hut. We have also introduced special "Treat Bundles" starting at Rs 75 which are very affordable. Our new advertising will also touch upon this.

What about future plans for the brand?

On the expansion front, we will continue to maintain a 45 per cent rate of growth and will be adding about 35 restaurants this year to the existing 127. We will also be introducing a new non-pizza product over the next few months.

We share a close relationship with Pepsi (Yum! used to be part of Pepsi Foods) and may look at associating further with them in sponsoring concerts or similar events.

What are the expansion plans for KFC?

We will be opening about 20 outlets in six cities this year in addition to the existing 11. So far we don't have a presence in Mumbai or Delhi, which are our priorities. Out of these, about five will be owned by us and not franchisees.

We do this in very few restaurants worldwide, only when we think they have the potential. We think that Yum! Restaurants can have about 1,000 restaurants in India over the next 10 years.