Taco Bell Franchise finally launches in Bangalore

Yum! is Largest and Fastest Growing Restaurant Company in India and Building Taco Bell into Third Powerhouse Global Brand. 

24th May 2010: Yum International announces the grand opening of the first Taco Bell in India by its international division, Yum! Restaurants International (YRI). Yum! is the leading restaurant company in India with its KFC and Pizza Hut brands. The introduction of the first Taco Bell in India reflects the Company's strategy of creating a third global brand.

After much speculation, Taco Bell Food Franchise finally launches in India. It was rumoured to be in talks with several corporations for its franchise rights and it was even considering launching by themselves. The current Taco Bell restaurant is managed directly by Yum India. It is not sure as of now, in terms of how is it, that Taco Bell aims to expand. Since, they are currently aiming at 100 Taco Bell restaurants by 2015. Taco Bell was slated to launch two locations in India in 2009 

"We're delighted to be offering Taco Bell to consumers in India, a key growth market in our global portfolio," said Graham Allan, president, Yum! Restaurants International. "Based on customer feedback so far, we expect it will become extremely popular, just as it is in the United States. The Mexican-style food is perfect for the Indian taste palate and we will be offering a variety of vegetarian meals as well so that everyone can enjoy it."

Yum!'s new Taco Bell international restaurant, located in Bangalore, India, is the country's first experience with the Mexican-inspired quick-service restaurant brand. Taco Bell's "Think Outside the Bun" positioning and brand essence is expected to resonate extremely well with India's young population. The new Taco Bell India menu features tacos, burritos, nachos, quesadillas and Crunchwraps, including spicier products tailored to the Indian market. The menu offers breakthrough value priced items starting at 35 cents. In addition, fifty percent of the menu features a vegetarian range of products specially created for Indian consumers including potato paneer burritos and crunchy potato tacos, among others.

"We are confident that Taco Bell will redefine the eating-out market in India with incredible taste catering to many consumer segments, day parts and occasions at an unmatched price," said Niren Chaudhary, managing director, Yum! Restaurants International India. "We are excited to be opening the first Taco Bell in India and we plan to expand it nationally as an incredibly vibrant and youthful brand."

Yum! Brands is focused on developing Taco Bell into its third global brand after KFC and Pizza Hut. Taco Bell is the second most profitable brand in the United States. Over the past few years, the Company has expanded Taco Bell beyond Canada and Puerto Rico to other markets including Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, Dominican Republic, Guam, Iceland, Philippines, Dubai, Spain and Cyprus. Yum! is optimistic about the long-term potential of growing Taco Bell internationally. As of year-end 2009, there are more than 250 Taco Bell restaurants outside of the United States.

India is a key growth market for Yum! Brands due to its extremely young and large population of 1.1 billion people, growing middle class and emerging economy. Over the past 12 years, Yum! has become the largest and fastest growing restaurant company in India by successfully developing a strong infrastructure, highly-skilled workforce focused on providing outstanding customer service and innovative, localized menus offering value options. By 2015, the Company expects to have at least 1,000 restaurants in India, up from 230 restaurants as of year-end 2009.

KFC is the fastest growing quick-service restaurant brand in India with 72 restaurants in 13 cities as of year-end 2009. Yum! opened 27 new KFC restaurants in India in 2009, which is among the highest number of store openings in the country's quick-service restaurant industry. KFC is a young, vibrant brand in India from its contemporary restaurant designs featuring bold colors, open seating areas for large groups and flat-panel televisions to innovative marketing programs to unique signature products, including vegetarian items. Last year, the Company opened its first KFC Krushers beverage bar and store design in India highlighting YRI's popular new line of yogurt and fruit smoothies, dairy-based and soda-based drinks and teas.

Pizza Hut has been named the "Most Trusted Food Service Brand" in India for the fifth year by The Economic Times (India), ahead of all other Indian and global brands, demonstrating its popularity in the country. As of year-end 2009, there are 158 Pizza Huts in 34 cities offering a range of localized products including masala pizza, chicken tikka appetizers and spicy Indian drinks.

YRI is the largest division of Yum! Brands with more than 13,000 restaurants outside the U.S. and China Division. One of Yum! Brands' four key business strategies is to drive aggressive international expansion and build strong brands everywhere. In 2009, operating profit for YRI was $491 million. The year 2009 also marked the tenth year that YRI has opened more than 700 new restaurants outside the U.S. and China.

Way2Franchise.com take at Taco Bell Franchise is that they will spend some time creating awareness about Mexican Food. Mexican Food is not quite popular except for the metros that too enjoy some brief amount of awareness. Indian's havent really caught on to much of western cuisine, other than Burgers and Pizzas, thanks to one McDonalds and the many pizza companies. Mexican Food is still unknown to most. Initially, Indians may try out once a month or so, as it would be considered exotic, but during rest of the days, they would be back to the regular Indian stample diet. 

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India Pepsi Franchisee set to secure franchise rights for Sri Lankan Bottling Business

26 Jan 2010

NEW DELHI: RJ Corp, the diversified conglomerate owned by serial entrepreneur Ravi Jaipuria, is about to clinch a deal that will in one stroke hand it all of PepsiCo's bottling operations in Sri Lanka and expand its global footprint further.

RJ Corp is in advanced talks to buy the franchisee bottling rights of PepsiCo from Ole Springs Bottlers, the only bottler, distributor and marketer of the beverage and foods maker in the Lankan market, where Coca-Cola and local brand Elephant are also present. The deal gives RJ Corp access to the lucrative soft drink market in Sri Lanka, estimated at about Rs 1,200 crore and growing at over 30% annually.

"We expect to close the deal shortly," said Mr Jaipuria, who had no comment on the valuation of the deal and other financial details. RJ Corp, which owns PepsiCo India’s biggest franchisee bottling business and franchisee rights for Yum Restaurant International’s KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants, has been targeting a global spread for some time. Plans are afoot to set up dairy businesses in Rwanda by the yearend and in Tanzania by mid-2010 through buyouts or greenfield ventures.

The company has had a long relation with Pepsi-Co; it is the cola maker’s top franchisee bottler in India and owns the franchisee rights in Nepal and Africa too. RJ bought PepsiCo's bottling West Bengal operations last year, the first time a company plant went to a bottler, and a controlling stake in Pepsi’s Guwahati-based franchisee bottler, North East Pure Drinks, in 2008. PepsiCo, whose Sri Lanka operations fall under the Indian offshoot, had entered the island nation in 1986 by roping in stateowned Ceylon Cold Storage Co (CCS) as franchisee.

The association lasted only till 1988-89 after PepsiCo ended the deal blaming weak bottling operations. PepsiCo soon signed an exclusive bottling agreement with Ole, owned by Capital Maharaja Organisation, a private sector conglomerate with interests in pharmaceuticals, shipping, chemicals, etc.

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Franchising and Nepal, Impact of Fast Food Franchising in Nepal

I can honestly say that I have not been to a fast food restaurant in a long time, really the only time I eat fastfood is for a late night snack after the pit, however now I find myself walking to the bus loop to go home, rather than to McDonalds in the Village.

The fast food industry in Developing Countries
With the rapid increase in local food and a more health conscious public, fast food restaurants like McDonalds, Pizza Hut and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) are no longer attracting the same number of customers as the restaurants did in the 1990’s. We no longer see the lines outside major fast food restaurants and these restaurants are no longer seen as popular “quick bites. These chains were previously  “cool” hangouts but are no longer considered popular meeting points for today’s youth. Customers who buy local are rarely seen eating popcorn shrimp at KFC or ordering chicken wings at Pizza Hut. But if you hop on a flight to Kathmandu, or easier just rewind time 15 hours to Wednesday November, 23, mid-day and picture the 1,000 plus crowd outside the KFC/Pizza hut in Kathmandu as thousands of people welcomed its first multinational chain of restaurants to enter the country of Nepal.

This forced many questions within my group of trekkers: one being why does a country that eats probably more local food than anywhere in the world welcome these chains? The answer is obvious as Nepal begs for more western capital investment. RJ Corp is the biggest bottler of Pepsi brands in Nepal and also the largest franchisee for YUM brands, mainly Pizza Hut and KFC. As stated by the officials of R J Corp, “Nepal is a promising market for these brands and their entry will give the Nepali economy a boost by creating job opportunities for locals”. The opening of these two fast food chains is said to give Nepali consumers the first local experience of an international food chain. Devyani International along with YUM Brands is the world’s largest restaurant company with five global brands and 35,000 outlets across 105 countries, and they are, “…excited to make their entry in the Nepalese restaurant circle and they have extensive plans for growth and expansion in this market”, says a R J Corp spokesperson. This expansion will in the end hurt Nepal and the people in the local restaurant industry.

The funny thing is that, “many of the ingredients for KFC and Pizza Hut are imported from abroad, including the chicken from Brazil and potatoes from Australia”, and this will be the case as ingredients will shipped to India then brought to Nepal. The most common food in Nepal is daal bhat, which consists of Rice (bhat), and a bean soup (Daal), and whenever I enjoyed it (at least once a day) it was accompanied with potatoes. The people of Nepal eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Almost everything I ate while I was in Nepal included potatoes as an ingredient. So why would YUM ship in potatoes over 5,000 miles from Australia to Nepal when the locals would be glad to sell produce to YUM? And why is there a belief that consumers in Nepal are ready for an international eating-out experience, as one RJ Corp official stated.

On a Global Level

In educating the world of the benefits of eating local, which 99.9% of Nepal has no choice but to do, it is important that we stop the growth and expansion of international chains. And if it is necessary for the YUM brands to expand into the developing world and benefit communities by providing jobs, it should be addresses that these franchises attempt to use local ingredients. Personally I think RJ Corp is trying to exploit Nepal and the introduction of Pizza Hut and KFC will not help Nepal’s economy. Sure it will provide jobs but the amount of customers taken from the local restaurants will do more harm than good. Not to mention that soon we will see a McDonalds, Burger King, Dairy Queen, (and the list goes on) in the Center of Durbar Square and on the main street of Pokhara.

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DIL signs JV with Delhi International Airport (GMR Group) to roll out food retail chain

Devyani International Ltd (DIL), the Indian master franchisee of global food retail chains Pizza Hut, KFC and Costa Coffee, has reportedly entered into a joint venture (JV) with GMR Group to set up multiple food retail outlets at the Delhi International Airport.

DIL is also planning to set up food courts at Jaipur, Amritsar and Chandigarh airports, and has already put in tenders with the Airports Authority of India for the same. On an average, the investment on a food court of about 12,000 sq ft involves a cost of close to Rs 10 crore. 

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