Meet the gentlemen who brought Wendy's to India

About a year ago, the coming entry of the world's second-largest burger chain, Burger King, into India was making headlines. Then, Delhi-based Amtek Auto group company Rollatainers, a packaging firm, was quietly plotting its entry into food and beverages.

Leading the entry was 53-year-old Sanjay Chhabra, a Delhi-based entrepreneur. Before this, he was running his own food services business called Mapple. The latter was taken over by Rollatainers' wholly-owned subsidiary Carnation Hospitality about a year ago. Around the same time, Carnation acquired a pan-Asian restaurant chain called Kylin. Chhabra, who says he retains his stake in Mapple, was tasked with driving Rollatainers' food and beverages' interests, including Carnation.

Chhabra got on the task. By August last year, Carnation bought Barista from Italian firm Lavazza. It also partnered International Market Management (IMM), a London-based firm specialising in setting up consumer brands in emerging markets, in a 50:50 joint venture called Sierra Nevada Restaurants. The founder of IMM is 44-year-old British entrepreneur Jasper Reid. He has helped brands such as PizzaExpress set up shop in India.

Sierra Nevada, in which Chhabra and Reid are directors, won the order to bring Wendy's, the world's third-largest burger chain, to India as a master franchisee.

(Franchisee is a company that has been given the right to sell another company's goods or services in an area.)

Also, Carnation set up another venture with IMM called Dolomite Restaurants. This company became in India the master franchisee of Jamie's Italian, the restaurant chain promoted by chef Jamie Oliver.

Chhabra says the first Jamie's Italian restaurant will be launched by August. But Wendy's will see more action. He says, "In the first year of operation, we propose to add eight to ten outlets of Wendy's in Delhi-National Capital Region. We launched a Wendy's outlet in Gurgaon last week. Expansion to other cities such as Mumbai and Bengaluru will not happen immediately - possibly after two years. We are not in this race to set up stores across the country."

Sierra Nevada is taking measured steps towards the fast-food business. This is because while the Indian food services market, Rs 3 lakh crore, will cross Rs 5.5 lakh crore by 2020, led by fast-food chains, growth has suffered because of a spending cuts by consumers.

Jubilant FoodWorks, the master franchisee of Domino's and Dunkin' Donuts in India; Westlife Development, which runs McDonald's in the West and the South; and Yum! Brands, the owner of Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC, have seen same-store sales growth slow considerably over the last several quarters.

Jubilant was the only one to see a mild recovery of under two per cent in its same-store sales growth during the December 2014 quarter. Analysts say it just scraped by. Its fourth-quarter numbers will tell whether it held on to its growth rate, they add.

"We are not worried about competition," Chhabra says. "We are confident of the quality of our burgers, pricing (Rs 59 upwards), and variety. We are also trying to make our retail spaces exciting for our consumers," he adds.

In a year, international burger chains have made a beeline for India. Once the preserve of McDonald's, burgers today are a prominent item on everybody's menu, including donut chains such as Dunkin Donuts, chicken specialists such as KFC and general fast food. Not only are the burger chains competing with their own, but also other fast-food majors, experts say.

JASPER REID

• 44, director, Sierra Nevada and Dolomite Restaurants.

• Graduated from the Oxford University

• Worked for Australian investment bank Macquarie Capital

• Founded IMM to help global brands with their India, Asia expansion plans

SANJAY CHHABRA

• 53, director, Carnation Hospitality, Sierra Nevada and Dolomite Restaurants.

• Set up own business in apparel manufacturing, then in hospitality

• Founded Mapple

• This company was taken over by Amtek Auto Group a year ago