The Hindu Business Line : Pantaloon Retail plans restaurant foray

The country's largest retailer, Pantaloon Retail, is cooking up plans to significantly increase its presence in the rapidly growing domestic food industry.

The group, which owns brands such as Food Bazaar and Big Bazaar, is all set to venture into the restaurant business either independently or through alliances in the near future with plans initially to launch two restaurants in Mumbai and Bangalore this year.

The retailer is also working towards getting closer to the Indian homemaker by offerings in store which will take away the negative labour back home with a range of products in a `live kitchen' format, including home style gravies, dals, cooked rice and even kneaded dough, Mr Damodar Mall, President, Food Bazaar, told Business Line.

Not just metros

"We have significant interest in food which will find - expression through multiple formats including live kitchens which will now be part of every Food Bazaar we set up," Mr Mall said. "Indians not just in metros but in tier-1 and 2 towns too are ready for modern format offerings in food and we want to be the pioneers in this," he said.

Pantaloons food division, meanwhile, is also simultaneously working at other aspects of strengthening its footprint in the segment with Food Bazaar already on a private label programme with in-house brands in everything from tea and salt to ketchup and jams.

The group plans to increase the number of Food Bazaar outlets from the current 40 to 150 by end 2007. "Food Bazaar will be part of every Big Bazaar and Central and in smaller centres we will set up stand-alone outlets,'' he added.

With the domestic retail industry now on a boom and large players such as Reliance and Wal-Mart expected to join the bandwagon, existing retailers are rushing to gather maximum early mover advantage.

Indivision to fund

Indivision, a Pantaloon group venture fund will help the group spot brands with promise in everything from food, footwear to apparel and accessories, according to Mr Mall who said that among other things Indivision will fund and provide market strategy to these brands. Market sources insist that the Pantaloon group is scouting for regional players in the ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook segments of the food business right now.

Kiosk brand

With food on the radar, Pantaloons is also charting out growth maps for its food brands Café Bollywood, which serves Indian street food and Chamosa, its kiosk brand, that sells a combination of Indian chai and samosas at affordable prices. "Chamosa kiosks require very little space and we are right now planning to grow it at the level of one outlet every week," says Mr Mall.