PE-backed Yo! China to venture into coffee shop business; Plans 10 outlets

By Bhawna Gupta

  • 29 Aug 2012
Yo! China

Moods Hospitality Pvt Ltd, the parent company of the Chinese fast food chain Yo! China, will open 10 youth-friendly cafes over the next one year as part of a strategy to increase profitability, according to an Economic Times report.

These cafes will be serving alcohol and specialty desserts, and also feature display kitchens. The food will be 20 per cent costlier than standard offerings and the first such cafe is expected to open in the next 10 days.

“We expect the cafes to be a more profitable business model than our existing outlets, which could be converted into cafes,” said managing director and CEO Ashish Kapur.

For these new food cafes, the company plans to hire college students as store managers that will help connect better with the youth.

Founded in 2002, Gurgaon-headquartered Moods Hospitality has around 50 Yo! China outlets across Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad, as well as in Chandigarh, Dehradun, Pune, Bangalore, Mangalore and Hyderabad.

In November 2006, Matrix India Fund, managed by Matrix Partners India, invested $6.51 million (Rs 292.5 million) to acquire 49.04 per cent stake in Moods Hospitality.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)