Bhagwati to foray into ready-to-eat segment

To enter Ahmedabad, Mumbai markets initially.

The Ahmedabad-based Bhagwati group, which is planning five-star hotels in Surat and Ahmedabad, is set to foray into the ready-to-eat food segment targeting corporates. To begin with, the group will target Ahmedabad and Mumbai markets.

"Our internal surveys suggest there is a great potential in the segment, which is largely untouched in Gujarat. In Ahmedabad alone, there is a scope for 10,000 packs a day. This is likely to go up substantially in the coming days," said Narendra Somani, chairman and managing director of Bhagwati Banquets & Hotels.

The company plans to provide light working lunches in packs of Rs 50. Somani said the capex for the initiative was very low while the returns would be high. "Our estimates are that the business volume will be around Rs 8 crore per city every year," he said.

The group is also planning restaurants and banqueting chains in seven cities by the end of this year. "Nagpur and Jaipur projects will be through by April 2008," he said. The other cities are Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh.

Its sales increased from over Rs 13 crore in 2005 to over Rs 35 crore in 2007. "We are looking at Rs 55 crore in 2008 and nearly double the figure in 2009," he said.

Besides, the company is planning a convention centre-cum-hotel project, which would come up on an area of 1,80,000 sft.

"We have built the country's largest convention centre in a hotel at Surat, spread across 55,000 sft. We plan to build a bigger convention centre in a hotel in Ahmedabad, which is likely to be spread across 60,000-65,000 sft," he said.