 "Hardcastle to double McCafe presence in 12-18 months")
Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd, which is the franchisee for fast food multinational chain McDonald's in West and South India, is planning to double its presence of beverages brand McCafe in 12-18 months, said Smita Jatia, managing director of the company.
The company, a subsidiary of Westlife Development Ltd, has launched the McCafe brand in 2013 in Mumbai and started expansion in a big way from 2014. It is a brand which runs on a shop-in-shop model.
"We currently have 95 McCafes across 12 cities. We will double the number in next 12-18 months," she said. The exclusive Arabica coffee the company offers is almost 10-15% lower in price than that of its competitors.
She added that the beverages business, along with other platforms it runs including the online sales, has helped the company to post same-store profit, which is the difference in revenue generated by a particular outlet over a fiscal year compared to its performance during previous year, in the last five quarters.
It may be noted that the company has been planning to double its operations from the current 245 McDonland's restaurants over next five to seven years with an estimated investment of around Rs 700-800 crore. The funding would be from internal accruals and debt, she added.
