The Waterbase Ltd, part of the Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) Thapar group, on Tuesday, unveiled its plans to create a chain of Tiger Bay restaurants across the country, that specialises in seafood.

The company officials, at a press conference in Chennai, said in the next 12 to 18 months around 10 Tiger Bay restaurants will be opened in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. The company proposes to invest close to Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) in this restaurant chain. The success of the first Tiger Bay restaurant in Bangalore had prompted TWL to expand it into a chain.

TWL has also, in the last one year, expanded the capacity of its feed mill unit and shrimp processing plant in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh. The company had recently commissioned a pasteurised crab meat plant in Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu, as a joint venture with John T Handy Inc, a United States company specialising in crab related products.

Ashok Nanjapa, chief executive, TWL, said, "We are also looking for a star hotel in Chennai that would host Tiger Bay restaurants as a speciality seafood joint."

Nanjapa added that a standalone restaurant such as Tiger Bay that would also serve wine and liquor cannot be opened in Tamil Nadu. Permit for a bar would be given only to a hotel with a minimum of 20 rooms.

The restaurant chain would be promoted and run by a subsidiary of the TWL, Gourmet Delicattessens Ltd, and funding for the project will be from internal accruals and joint venture partners.

The company last year had expanded its feed mill unit in Nellore to 45,000 MT per annum from 20,000 MT per annum. The shrimp processing plant was also expanded from 250 MT to a 500 MT storage capacity.

The company expects to close the current financial year with a turnover in excess of Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.40 billion), recording a jump of 30 per cent over the previous year's turnover of Rs.114.38 crore (Rs 1.14 billion). The turnover for the first quarter of 2002-03 was however Rs.25.87 crore (Rs 258.7 million), registering a fall of 37 per cent from the topline for the same period last year.

The fall in first quarter turnover, according to TWL officials, was owing to the delay in the start of the culture cycle by 45 days. The impact of the delay, the officials said, will not affect the company performance for the whole year.

The net profit for the first quarter of 2003-04 was Rs 1.14 crore (Rs 11.4 million) as against Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) for the same period in the previous fiscal.