Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Feb 10, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Feb 10, 2005 |
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Marketing
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Retailing Pizza Corner parent to bring in sandwich, ice-cream chains Sindhu J. Bhattacharya
New Delhi , Feb. 9 GLOBAL Franchise Architects (GFA) is expanding in India. The company, which already owns and operates two retail ventures - Pizza Corner and premium coffee lounge bar Coffee World - is now planning to bring in two more ventures developed globally: sandwich chain New York Deli and premium ice-cream parlour chain, The Cream & Fudge Corporation. Speaking to Business Line, the Chief Operating Officer of GFA India, Mr Anoop Sequeira, said that GFA would develop different retail ventures in India and Thailand and then launch these globally. For example, Pizza Corner was conceptualised and launched from India and was the first retail venture of GFA. This concept is now being taken overseas. In fact, in a reversal of the general trend which has seen many multinationals explore market potential in China before descending on Indian shores, Pizza Corner will be opening in China, Sri Lanka and Dubai soon with an investment of about $9 million (around Rs 40 crore). Similarly, Coffee World was developed in Thailand and is now being brought to India. After eight years of operations in India, Pizza Corner is expected to break even next fiscal, he said, adding that the chain is targeting 100 per cent growth to 60 outlets by December. On why GFA has brought the premium coffee lounge bar concept to India, after the bitter lessons learnt by Barista and Café Coffee Day in terms of price-value equation, Mr Sequeira said these would compete with the 5-star coffee shops in terms of products and pricing of some items. "The entry-level pricing for Coffee World has been kept close to competition but premium products will obviously be more expensive. We have decided to introduce 50 SKUs (stock-keeping units) across the coffee chain to begin with." He said GFA plans to invest about $3 million in establishing 16 Coffee World outlets in 2005. On the premium ice-cream chain, he said the concept was still being finalised and that the first outlet would come up this summer in the South, simultaneous with its international launch. Again, he stressed that while the look and taste of the ice-creams would be "premium", this chain would use a novel way to dish out the ice creams.
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