With the Mirah Group’s current engagements in sectors like real estate development, hospitality, wind energy generation, textiles it is poised to enter new areas. In an interview with Pravda Godbole, Gaurav Goenka, director, Mirah Group talks about the group’s expansion plans for its food and beverage segment. Edited excerpts:
What are the company’s expansion plans?
Our group already includes prominent food and beverage brands such as Rajdhani and Manchester United Café and Bar. We are now looking at aggressively expanding our market foothold in the Indian food and beverage (F&B) segment with an investment of over Rs 100 crore by 2012.
Additionally, we completely bought over Rajdhani thali brand in the first quarter of this financial year, and it is now fully owned by Mirah Group. The brand Rajdhani is expected to undergo a complete brand makeover. We plan to launch over 60 outlets across India by March 2013.
That would involve how much investment and how will it be raised?
We plan to invest Rs 75 crore by 2012 in our own F&B brands and further Rs 50 crore by way of acquiring stake in F&B companies. Presently, the money will be raised organically and through various banking channels.
What kind of expansion plans do your other brands like Manchester United Café Bar, Falafels, Palette, Nouvelle and Café Mangii have?
Manchester United Café Bar which is already present in Mumbai, Delhi and Gurgaon will now be introduced in Hyderabad, Goa, Chandigarh, Pune and Kolkata.
We recently acquired a stake in Café Mangii which has one outlet in Mumbai and now plan to increase this to five more locations in the city within the next 6 months, followed by outlets in markets such as Goa as well. Moreover, we identified a gap in the segment where organised players cater to IT & IT driven industries. We plan to bridge this with Nouvelle - our industrial catering brand.
When did the group acquire Falafel’s Veg Hummus House, and any future plans to be shared regarding this brand?
Falafel’s was acquired by the group in December last year. It is currently present at 7 outlets in Mumbai and we plan to take this brand to Bangalore and Pune soon. We have introduced a cart model for this brand which shall be seen at strategic locations such as malls and multiplexes.
Which new businesses do you plans to foray in?
We will soon enter the hospitality sector for which we are now looking at targeting the oriental and desserts segment going forward which will be introduced sometime in this financial year.
Does Mirah have any overseas expansion plans, by when?
Yes, we are already present in Dubai and Oman. We are looking at other destinations and shall announce these by end of the year.
