McDonald's India to double outlets in 3 yrs

Fast food chain McDonald's India today said it plans to double the number of outlets it has in the country to 500 over the next three years at an investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

The American fast food chain is being operated in the country by two franchisees. While Hardcastle Restaurant -- promoted by Amit Jatia -- runs the chains in the West and South, Vikram Bakshi-led Connaught Plaza Restaurants runs the outlets in the North and East.

Together, these two franchisees run 250 McDonald's outlets in the country.

"We have about 250 McDonald's outlets now and we will double the number in the next three years. Hardcastle runs about 130 restaurants and we will take it to 250 outlets in the next three years with an investment of Rs 500 crore," McDonald's India (West & South) Vice-Chairman Amit Jatia told PTI here.

The rest of the outlets will be added by Connaught Plaza, which has about 120 stores now. The combined investment will be to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore over the three-year expansion period, Jatia informed.

A significant number of the new outlets will be drive-throughs, which are typical highway outlets where take-away orders are encouraged.

McDonald's has 45-50 drive-through outlets in the country at present and the franchisees are keen to more than double the number of outlets they operate in this format.

"Drive-throughs is a big focus for us. We want to more than double its reach. The investment is more for a drive-through, but we don't give a breakup for the investment," Jatia said.

The company has tie-ups with Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and IndianOil to set up drive-throughs at their petrol pumps.

McDonald's also plans to double its headcount in the next three to four years by adding 2,500 people each year.

"Today, we have about 12,000 working with us. We will double this in the next three to four years," he said.

On the attrition level in the company, he said it is comparatively better than the industry average of 70%, at 30%.

The company has managed to keep its prices affordable despite high input costs, Jatia said, adding that normally, McDonald's hikes prices by 3-4% on an annual basis.

McDonald's India has set up farm and processing facilities that are owned by suppliers. It sources almost 98% of its inputs locally.