Consumer goods company Dabur’s Vice Chairman Amit Burman promoted Lite Bite Foods is looking at aggressive expansion of its various QSR and fine dining brands in India and overseas. As part of its expansion plan, the company will open four to five stores of its specialty restaurant Fresc Co in the country and take its fine dining restaurant Punjab Grill to North America and Europe.
“At present we have 60 plus outlets and we plan to expand aggressively in the coming year. With various strategic locations already finalised, we have plans for Middle East,
South East Asia and other parts of the world. As far as our investment in 2013 is concerned, we are aiming at an approximate budget of 20-25 crore,” Amit Burman, Chairman, Lite Bite Foods told India Hospitality Review.
As part of its expansion plans, Lite Bite Foods is focussing on increasing the footprint of its fine dining brand Punjab Grill overseas. Punjab Grill was started by food columnist Jiggs Kalra and his son Zorawar Kalra promoted Wrapster Foods in 2007. Wrapster Foods first entered a JV with Lite Bite Foods, after which Zorawar and Jiggs Kalra sold their stake in the JV to Lite Bite early this year. Punjab Grill has restaurants in Mumbai, New Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarh. It also has restaurants in Singapore, Bangkok and Abu Dhabi.
“Bangkok, Abu Dhabi and Singapore were obvious choices for us as they are thriving, cosmopolitan cities brimming with diversity of culture, languages and arts. Punjab Grill has been our most successful brand in India and overseas and we plan to take it further. We are also aiming to take it in North America, Europe and other parts of the world,” Burman said.
The company also has bought the stake of its JV partner Eat Out Group, a part of Spanish company Agrolimen, with which it brought specialty restaurant Fresc Co in the country. The company plans to open four to five more outlets of the same in India in the future.
Speaking about the development, Burman said, “We don’t have any JV with the Eat Out Group anymore, as we have bought their stakes. Therefore, Lite Bite Foods owns all the Fresc Co franchises in India. As far as our planning for the future is concerned, we are aiming at opening 4-5 more Fresc Co outlets at strategic locations across India.”
Lite Bite Foods was set up in 2008 initially promoted by Amit Burman, Tejpavan Gandhok and Rohit Aggarwal. Gandhok later exited the venture to pursue a career in the education space. At present, Rohit Aggarwal is the Managing Director of the company.
According to Burman, as part of its expansion plans, Lite Bite Foods will also look for strategic alliance and business opportunities in different locations including airports.