by Vijaylakshmi
Nando’s arrived on Indian shores in 2010 and grew cautiously over the next few years to 14 restaurants in 2018. Post pandemic that number reduced to 12.
This year the restaurant company announced the forming of a JV with K Hospitality Corp. “Nando’s started in India with a franchisee, then it became equity before Covid hit. We are now committed to a model which works for India. This year, we want to double our portfolio. We’re opening another 10 this year which will mean 22 outlets. In the next decade we are targeting to cross 150 stores,” said Sameer Bhasin, CEO of Nando’s India.
Bhasin, who has been working with multiple MNCs involved in the restaurant business, felt that Nando’s took their time to grow strategically (explaining their slow growth trajectory till now).
“Every multi company has grappled to find its foot space in India—the likes of KFC and Pizza Hut took their time. Nando’s considered putting in equity into the market given the strategic importance of the market. That’s when I came into the picture in 2018 and we started growing from that perspective. That year, we took the store count from nine to about 14 and there were high plans of growth carrying on the momentum before Covid happened,” he said.
There were several reasons to form the partnership with K Hospitality Corp starting with the fact that it was always good to piggyback on a big player in India and using their existing national supply chain means that Nando’s can open in multiple cities in a go, he said.
Rentals were also a big deal in India and for Nando’s to be part of a larger offering of brands which were in the K Hospitality Corp stable meant that they will be able to manage the rental-scape, he added.
Speaking next about the positioning of Nando’s in the Indian restaurant world, Bhasin said his product was very unique. “We are somewhere between a CDR and a QSR. So we sort of dabble, between the core, which is obviously your CDR customers, and we straddle the aspirational also. So you’ve got this ‘KFC consumer’ who’s rather functional in nature, who’s happy to sort of access KFC from a satiating purpose, but is looking for something aspirational,” he said, adding “The way we positioned our menu is that we’ve got products which are at a reasonable price range, from KFC, our value deals—and then we beautifully ladder them up through our CRM and loyalty programme.”
On the subject of choosing the location of the new outlets, Bhasin said that locations are presented to the board on the basis of full business cases and then a decision is taken.
