Eka cooks up restaurant road map
Hrithik Kiran Bagade
BENGALURU: Eka Hospitality — part of the Pune-based Ab-sotherm Group — has envisaged tapping into the burgeoning restaurant market in India, with plans to roll out four to five different brands over the coming five years, wanting to serve the country’s passionate taste buds.
The company launched its first restaurant FLECHAZO at Marathahalli, in Bengaluru, this week. The speciality restaurant, which received an investment of Rs 3 crore, dishes out gourmet Asian and Mediterranean fare, and is targeted at busy diners who work in the many tech companies dotting its surroundings.
“Wherever you go around the world, people relish Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Lebanese, Spanish, Turk,- ish, and Greek food. With this observation, we’ve brought in popular dishes from the said cuisines, and serve them in innovative ways,” Eka Hospitality Chief Executive Officer Jayakannan said.
Eka now aims to open 10 FLECHAZO outlets over the next two years across Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mumbai, and in Gujarat, which will entail an investment of around Rs 30 crore.
“While FLECHAZO is a business- and corporate-friendly concept, its best aspects rest in its packaging and interactive menu, cooked up be expert chefs. Besides, we would also be launching the pilot for our QSR (quick service restaurant) chain next year, based on an Asian coffee shop concept, while a pub format will also be explored. Similarly, we are working on different concepts, which will materialise in the coming years,” Jayakannan said.
The company has over 800 acres of farms involved in agri-culture, poultry farming, and fisheries, spread through Tamil Nadu and Kerala. “We want to create our own supply chain and logistics, and integrate farm-to-fork operations, so as to help our restaurant business. This will be supported by fanner contracts, all of which, will add value to end-cus-tomers,” he said.
DH News Service