Nilgiris' family to diversify

A few of the family members belonging to the promoter group of Nilgiris Retail, the century-old retail chain focussed on South India, are embarking on diversification plans under a new brand name Blue Hill. In addition to planning to have a new brand in the food retailing, the family members are getting into luxury travel, quick service restaurants and FMCG retailing.

The company on Friday announced that they will launching a super-luxury travel from Monday between Bangalore and Chennai. Blue Hill Group director Prabhu Ramachandran said: “I believe that there is a gap for luxury surface travel connecting main cities of India. India now has an upwardly mobile population which is our major target audience. We believe we have the first mover advantage in this category and in the next three years we plan to expand our services to other major cities. We have made an initial investment of Rs 30 crore for 12 buses and infrastructure, and we will scale up over the next few years.”

The group besides the travel venture, is channelling its resources into business of speciality foods, concept restaurants and boutique hotels. “We also have a joint venture with Liwayway Foods of Philippines, who operate under the brand ‘Oishi’ and is one of the largest snack food manufacturers in South East Asia. We are also planning to start food-service convenience stores under the brand name Food Cirkle.”