Mark Pi to foray into Gujarat restaurant business

US-based Chinese fast food chain, Mark Pi International has decided to foray into Gujarat's lucrative restaurant market. It will open four franchise restaurants in four cities by June.

Talking to Business Standard, Karana Verma, CEO, Mark Pi's Indian operation, said, "We are opening four chinese restaurants in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat and Rajkot, by June 06."

He said Mark Pi has extensively studied the Gujarat market before entering. "We are not opening our direct outlet, instead we are adopting a franchises model in Gujarat," said Verma.

Further, he added that Mark Pi will initially establish itself as a major player in food and beverage business. However, he refused details of the franchises agreements but said construction of the restaurants are in full swing and will be open to the public by June.

Verma said, "We will be basically targeting families, the youngest and people young at heart." The price will be reasonable, depending upon the local market, he added.

Keeping the local values and veracity of the Gujarati culture, Mark Pi restaurants will serve vegetarian food.

He said, "Our restaurants will be cent per cent vegetarian in Gujarat."

Mark Pi has a centralised distribution system of food materials with its manufacturing units at Noida near New Delhi, Gurgaon, Uttaranchal and Kochin. "We have centrally controlled supply chain. Restaurants in Gujarat will be supplied food items from our New Delhi centre", said Verma.

Mark Pi will use its own supply chain to ensure that the food orders reach the destination on time. "Supply chain is a critical part of our business," he added.

The food materials supplied will be cooked fresh at the restaurants' premises to serve hot. Further, he said, "We have 300 food items but initially we will be serving 90"�120 varieties here as per the local taste".

Mark Pi has also chalked out bigger plans to expand its presence in Gujarat in the next five years. Verma said, "We will increase the number of our franchises restaurants by another 20 in next five years in Gujarat."

Mark Pi expects to generate Rs 15 to 20 lakh food and beverage revenue per month from each restaurant in Gujarat. He said, "In last two years of Mark Pi's operations in India, we have invested Rs 50 crore." But its quite difficult to predict about the future investment as it depend on variable factors of a restaurant business, he added.