Venky's Xprs chain likely to breakeven in 15 months

Venky’s Xprs, a retail food chain venture of Venky’s India, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pune-based poultry major Venkateshwara Hatcheries group (VH group), expects to breakeven in 15 months.

“Right now, we are in an expansion mode, and are hopeful to break-even during that period,” B Venkatesh Rao, managing director, Venkys India, said addressing the media here on Monday.

The company is planning to open 100 Venky’s Xprs outlets across the country in the next three years. All the outlets would be company-owned.

It has lined up Rs 250 crore to be spent on setting up these outlets and also a research and testing facility in Hyderabad over the next three years. “We will raise the money through internal accruals, banks and from financial institutions,” he said.

The poultry industry, which was going through a bad phase for the last two months, is slowly picking up.The outlook for the next six months is bright, Rao said.

The Hyderabad facility would be a centrally controlled food testing laboratory to check quality and hygiene of all its outlets. Venky’s has tied up with UK-based Campden BRI to bring the latter’s technology and expertise.