Impresario plans to expand in small cities

Four-year-old Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality Pvt Ltd (IEHPL) has major plans for expansion. On the anvil are two new outlets at Pune and Nagpur.

These outlets are part of a countrywide expansion plan that targets smaller cities such as Kochi, Ludhiana, Amrtisar, Surat and Mysore.

The company which has four brands including Mocha, The Donut Co-retail for desserts, Finale Happy Endings-B2B dessert provider and Saltwater Grill-a fine dining restaurant, has adopted a franchisee model.

"We opted for franchisee scheme to magnify our vision and provide micro management. It is because of them that we can expand and scale up so rapidly," said Riyaz Amlani, chief executive officer, IEHPL, "But the franchisees are under tight supervision because we don't want to compromise on quality," he adds.

Mocha, the most visible of the four brands, has nine outlets across the country and five of these are in Mumbai.

IEHPL also intends a massive expansion of Donut Co at crowded, traffic-congested areas. Currently, it has only seven outlets, in Mumbai.

"We intend to have 900 Donut Co outlets across India by the end of 2010" says Amlani.

Soon, Donut Co will have more visibility than Mocha," says Amlani.IEHPL claims a monthly turnover of Rs 14-28 lakh per Mocha outlet.

So, the average annual turnover of a Mocha outlet is Rs 2,40,00,000.

Mocha's daily consumer profile include urban population and primarily SEC A. On an average, 30 per cent of them are below 20 years of age, 51 per cent are between 21 to 32 years and 19 per cent are above 32 years. Out of the total consumers, 31 per cent are male and 69 per cent female.

The regions targeted have varied demographics and some of them do not fit Mocha's consumer profile. These regions have less population of SEC A.

On this Amlani said, "Yes, there is enough money in Mumbai to sustain Mocha." He adds, "We are catering to a premium segment which in some places is only two per cent of the population. We may also look at SEC B. But we will not lower our prices, irrespective of where we expand."

IEHPL claims it roughly costs Rs 65-70 lakh to open a Mocha outlet while it roughly costs around Rs 5 lakh to open a Donut Co outlet.

On the other hand Finale costs around 75 lakh rupees and Salt Water Grill costs more than one crore rupees.