Restaurateur Zorawar Kalra's new venture Massive Restaurants, which runs its flagship brand âMade in Punjabâ, is planning to invest Rs 50 crore in the next three to four years. The company is close to raising this capital through a VC fund, Kalra told VCCircle.
The firm is jointly promoted by Kalra and his father Jiggs Kalra, who is India's first celebrity chef and food writer. The father-son duo started the brand âMade in Punjabâ in October last year after Kalra exited his JV with Dabur promoter Amit Burman in âPunjab Grillâ.
âWe are in advance stages of raising capital, but havenât signed a term sheet with the investors as of now. We are in talks with different venture capitalists at this stage. After raising around Rs 50 crore, we plan to be focused on our main brand Made in Punjab,â said Zorawar Kalra, managing director of Massive Restaurants.
Kalra added that the firm would open 35 outlets in the next five years; of them, 25 or more would be âMade in Punjabâ. The firm has another brand Masala Library which a premium brand and has one outlet at present. Farzi Cafe is another concept which is about to be launched in a month. The firm runs three outlets at presentâtwo Made in Punjab outlets and a Masala Library unit.
The initial investment in the firm has been Rs 10-12 crore. Zorawar Kalra owns 80 per cent stake in the company and will continue to own majority stake even after raising capital. Rest of the equity in the firm is also owned by Mirah Group managing director Gaurav Goenka. Kalra said that Mirah will not be putting further capital in the company as new investors would be coming in.
âWe aim to be a public listed company in five years and will be Rs 300 crore in revenues by then,â said Kalra. The company has a run rate of Rs 30 crore in revenues at present and will be Rs 50 crore by the end of March 2015. The firm employs 220 people at present but employee strength is expected to reach 400 in two months due to expansion.
Kalra claims that his restaurants have an EBITDA growth of 30 per cent. âWe are entering Dubai through franchise and opening an outlet in Radisson Royal in a 8,000 sq ft area in a few months. We are also in advance talks to enter the US and London which we will do in another year,â he said.
The company is looking at expanding in five-six metros only at this point. Though it is looking at franchise options, Kalra believes that in its overall portfolio, 90 per cent of the outlets will be company owned and the rest will be franchised.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)