Blue Hill Group to take Nilgiris legacy forward

Set to raise $55 million for expansion. Blue Hill Group, the Bangalore-headquartered group which is fast building a bouquet of businesses in retail, tourism and hospitality sectors, is embarking on an aggressive fund raising initiative to take forward the legacy of the famous Nilgiris Dairy & Retail.

Blue Hill Group which has been started by Prabhu Ramachandran, the fourth generation entrepreneur from the family which founded Nilgiris Dairy & Retail more than a century ago, is looking to expand its businesses which are into super luxury scheduled surface trans-port, quick service restaurants, packaged food besi-des food retailing. The group is aiming to raise as much $55 million (approximately Rs 250 crore) immediately to invest and expand these businesses.

Ramachandran, who was the lead when Actis picked up 65 per cent stake in Nilgiris Dairy for little over Rs 300 crore during late 2006, has been putting together an business plan in place which envisages a cumulative topline of around Rs 250 crore within a next few years time.

“While our packaged foods, predominantly in the snacks category, is available in most of the modern retail, we are aggressively rolling and expanding out in pan-India our ultra-luxury travel and quick service restaurants,” Ramachandran added. The group intends to have 50 quick service restaurants (presently in India and UAE ) by end of the year from the present around 10.

In addition to develo-ping its in-house range of snacks, Blue Hill Group has entered in to an equal joint venture with Philippines-based $700 million Liwayway Foods to bring in a global range of snack foods to India. “This segment is an untapped one. With more and more Indians travelling globally, they will be looking forward to various of those snacks in India. We are catering to that sector even as we intend to grow the Indian tastes,” he added.

The Group, which draws its lineage from the Nilgiris Retail, is also developing a niche food-only convenience retailing format under ‘Food triangle’, and is designed and planned on the lines of international food chains Marks & Spencers’ Simply Food, Waitrose and Woolworths. “We know the retailing business pretty well and we are taking forward the understanding with this format,” he added. The group intends to have around 20 such stores by end of current fiscal.

Taking forward the retailing expertise, the group has diversified into hospitality and since launched its scheduled ultra-luxury inter city premium coach service, which is on par with a business class offering in an airline.

“This is a logical extension and our super-luxury bus service has been getting enough demand for us to expand the frequency and routes. We plan to add four such coaches every month and start at least two stations every month ” he noted.

Ramachandran plans to have a fleet of at least 30 of such luxury multi-axle Mercedes Benz and Volvo coaches, completely refurbished and upgraded by automobile design expert Dilip Chhabbria, by end of the current year from the current 12. The aim is to connect Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirupati, Puducherry, Delhi, Agra, Chandigarh and Jaipur. “There are very few ultra-luxury bus servi-ces in India which offers the range comparable to an airline business class. Our Bangalore-Chennai-Bang-alore multiple frequency services has been appreciated with more than 65 per cent repeat clients. We intend to better it with our next range of fleet,” he added.