After focussing on the western region in its first 10 years in the country, McDonalds plans a full scale roll out in the southern region.
"The company plans to open about 40 to 50 restaurants in the region in three years, focusing initially on Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad," said Amit Jatia, managing director and joint venture partner McDonald's India (Western & Southern Region).
Explaining why the company took 10 years to move into the region, Jatia said that the logistics and supply chain are the key factors in the food retail business, which is why they follow a regional approach.
"We started with Mumbai before moving to the markets around the city. Similarly, we have started with Bangalore and have two outlets there and will gradually expand our presence to nearby cities," he said. The company would focus on self-owned restaurants, but it did not rule out the franchisee model.
McDonalds, which completes ten years in the country in October should end the year with about 115 outlets between both the joint venture partners, Jatia's Hardcastle Restaurants and Vikram Bakshi's Connaught Plaza Restaurants which handles the north and east.
At present, Hardcastle operates 34 restaurants which is slated to go up to 52 by year-end. Jatia pegged the per store investment at about Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million).
He says that despite the company having 40,000 outlets globally, it does not believe in the numbers game. It would prefer to establish proper logistics and service standards before rolling out the stores. Regarding future projections, Jatia said that they were looking at aggressive expansion.
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