Burger King to have 45-50 outlets by end of the year

It currently runs around 34 joints across the country

US-based quick service restaurant Burger King is planning to expand its outlets to 45-50 by the end of the year, from the current 34. The company has been growing fast in terms of outlets starting from its first launch last November and focus is on strengthening operations in cities, said Rajeev Varman, CEO, Burger King India.

The chain of restaurant has opened its 34th outlet in Chennai last week. With this, it currently has presence in cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Hyderabad and Chennai since its launch in November, 2014.

"We have been expanding fast in India since last November. We are planning to have aroun d 45-50 restaurants by the end of this year," said Varman.

The Everstone Capital-led master franchisee in India is currently opening its own stores in various parts of the country and it has not so far started expanding through subfranchisee model, while the option is kept open for sub franchisee model, he said.

India offers a huge opportunity for the segment in which the company operates, he said. "The quick service restaurant is over $100 billion business opportunity and only one to two per cent of it is the organised sector. The sector is growing at 30 per cent and offers a huge opportunity," he added.

The company is looking at various brand communication activities to spread the word that the well known brand is available in the city now.

It is using technology to connect to its customers including for logistics services to offer updates to its customers including the status of an order made by the particular customer, he added.