Tim Hortons plans to open 120 stores in India in next three years

Canadian restaurant chain Tim Hortons plans to open around 120 stores in India in the next three years at an investment of up to Rs 300 crore, a top company official said on Monday.

The chain, which had in August opened its first outlets in India, is initially focussing on North India and will later expand to other regions.

"The commitment that I made to the board is in the first 36 months of operation, in the first three years, there'll be 120 stores (in India)," the company's India CEO Navin Gurnaney said here in an interaction on the sidelines of Indian Restaurant Congress 2022.

The company could exceed the target as the first year is focussed on "building the foundation" with 20 new stores followed by another 50 new stores in the following 12 months, he added.

This, he said, will be followed by another 60 new stores in the third year.

All these stores will be company-owned, he said, adding the "investment per store is between Rs 2 crore to Rs 2.5 crore".

At present, Tim Hortons has six stores -- five in Delhi-NCR and one in Chandigarh, and by December, three more stores will be opened, Gurnaney noted

"We're currently focused on the north, which is Delhi and Punjab but by early summer, late spring, we will be in Mumbai, Pune, Surat and Ahmedabad. There will be some off-highway locations. We are actually considering a few different locations in Bangalore," the CEO said.

These will be in malls, high streets, airports and office complexes, he added.

Bullish on the Indian market, he said, "It's the consumer spending in India. The global aspirations, the number of industries that are coming to India and adding to people's ability to spend more, the social media that makes them think differently globally, any retail brand has prima facie the possibility of success, then it depends on how well you execute".