TFS plans to strengthen India presence, lines up Rs 150 crore of investment

MUMBAI: Travel Food Services (TFS), a subsidiary of Mumbai-based K Hospitality, has lined up Rs 150 crore of investment in its hospitality food service and travel retail businesses for next year. The 40-year-old company will strengthen its presence in India’s bigger cities apart from expanding in travel retail in newer segments such as rail.
"Metros have a larger growth opportunity and much of the consumption growth is in these markets," said Karan Kapur, executive director, TFS. Kapur said the investment will be funded through a mix of internal accruals, debt and equity infusion by promoters.

K Hospitality owns and manages brands such as Copper Chimney, Irish House, Bombay Brasserie and Serafina in 12 cities, apart from having a presence in banqueting and corporate food service business. The company has been steadily expanding its presence in the airport retail space by operating food and beverage outlets in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata apart from Muscat and Salalah overseas. It recently won a contract to operate outlets at Mangalore airport as well.

TFS manages partner and proprietary brands including Smoke House Bar & Café, KFC, Domino's, The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Cafe Coffee Day and Haagen-Dazs among others at the country’s airports. It also has partnerships with Gate Gourmet for in-flight catering and with Lagardère Travel Retail for duty free shops and news and books through the Relay brand.

Last year, the company entered the lounge management business, starting operations at Terminal 2 of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai.

Kapur said the company will invest in enhancing its delivery services and digital systems. "We will beef up both, front end — facing the consumer — and even the backend — systems and processes. So technology is an important part of the business going forward," he said.

With the central government's recent decision to modernise 400 railway stations in the country, TFS is betting big on the sector. Early this year, it won contracts to develop food courts at the Pune and Vishakhapatnam railway stations. These are expected to open in coming weeks.

Kapur said 60 per cent of the company's business comes from travel retail and the remaining 40 per cent from restaurants.

At a time when startups in the food and beverage space are being shut, traditional players in the industry are expanding steadily. According to Kapur, the company clocked 34 per cent growth in business in the first six months this year, as compared with last year.