Mirah Hospitality one of the leading F&B player in the organised sector having various brands under its wing believes they might be looking at ‘FOCO’ (franchise owned company operated) model of franchising of their brands. Mirah has built a strong network of brands with presence in over 20 cities across India, which is easily scalable and to be expanded rapidly. The Group diversified with brands like The United Sports Bar & Grill (the erstwhile Manchester United Café Bars), Café Mangii and HItchki. Mirah Hospitality has strategically invested in Impresario (Smoke House Deli, Social), and Massive Restaurants (Masala Library, Made in Punjab, Farzi Cafe) and more.  Aji Nair, Chief Operating Officer, F&B Division, Mirah Hospitality, in an exclusive chat for Retail4Growth, tells us about the expansion plans. Edited Excerpts. 

How much importance is given for ambience in all your outlets?

Any good meal goes well with an appropriate ambience. In our wide range of restaurants, ranging from cafe, bar, authentic thali restaurants, we have different approach. Our design for the restaurants are classified into three aspects- casual, formal and semi-casual based on the audience, age and type of food we serve. We see to that every three year we change the ambience of our restaurants. We travel to various countries, see how restaurants and food outlets are designing the interiors and exteriors. We have a dedicated team to do the research and design for our different outlets. 

How do you decide and implement your decor & interiors? 

We have a project team which is the think-tank for the concepts. We approach our architects on various suggestions for the designs. While the conceptual part is decided by our internal team, the execution is outsourced. We change our designs every three years. Even while making modification, we never get into the civil aspects of the design. What we modify is the cosmetic aspects. Every 7 years, we revamp the entire design and come up with new model.

What percentage of your total budget is spent on retail design?

In today’s India’s scenario, minimum spend needed for any restaurants is INR 1 cr to INR 1.5cr. In our restaurants, according to our calculation, we predict 70% capital expenditure and 30% operational expenditure. Within that 70%, we spend close to 45% to 50% only on interior designs.  

How is your online business performing?

Our online sale estimates to 13% to 14% and remaining 86% is from offline stores. We believe that most of customers come through direct experience and through word-of-mouth referrals. Only after someone experience our taste in-house, they will be able to tell their friends and family about the experience and the latter may place the food online.

What business model works well for you? Own brand or company owned?

All of our outlets are company owned. We tried few franchise but the model was not successful. We are looking forward to get ‘FOCO’ (franchise owned company operated) model. We will never allow the franchise owner to get into the operational part of the restaurants.

What are your expansion plans?

We will be coming up with two more restaurants of Rajdhani in Dubai,  six in India which would be more in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. Hitchki bar might have two more outlets. This is so far planned in the next financial year.