India Eco Summit: Yum! to invest $150 mn in India

US-based Yum! Restaurants today said it will invest up to USD 150 million (about Rs 700 crore) in India to expand its food chains, including Pizza Hut and KFC, and plans to have 1,000 outlets by the end of the 2015.

The company is also looking to earn an annual revenue of $1 billion by 2015.

"Our vision, is to be the number 1 restaurant chain in India and we aim to have turnover of $1 billion by 2015 from the country. For this purpose, we will be investing up to $150 million over the next six years to expand our chain to 1,000 outlets, from existing 215," Yum! Restaurant Managing Director (Indian Subcontinent) Niren Chaudhary told reporters on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit here.

The investment will come from the company's internal accruals.

Yum! Restaurant currently operates around 150 Pizza Hut outlets and 65 KFC outlets across India.

"The eating out market in India is of around $64 billion, of which only 1 per cent is in the organised sector. Therefore we see immense opportunity to grow in this market," he said.

The company had earlier this year announced plans to open its first restaurant under the brand of Taco Bell, which is another of its chains.

Chaudhary said the company is quite close to opening the first Taco Bell restaurant which will come up in Bangalore by end of this fiscal.

On reports of the company going for an initial public offering (IPO) in India, Chaudhary said Yum! Restaurant has no such plans.

Regarding the recent increases in commodity prices, he said: "Though commodity prices have increased for us it is business as usual."