Oriental cuisines to tap IT segment to up revenue

CHENNAI: City-based restaurant chain oriental cuisines would tap the potential of IT employees more with setting up fine dining restaurants, on the face of stagnant same store growth.
The company, which registered a 10% CAGR, set up a fine dining restaurant – Masale Square - in Ramanujan IT city (TRIL), Tharamani a week ago for its employees and is looking at opening more outlets in other IT parks in the city and Bengaluru.
Set up with an investment of Rs 1 crore per outlet, the restaurants – either Masale Square or Ente Keralam – would be set up, catering to the senior management officials, clients and team lunches. “The senior management officials do not generally dine in the food court and if they have to host clients, they do not have to reach out to restaurants outside. The response has been good so far. We are planning to open one more in another IT park in the city, within the next two months,” said V Ramanarayanan, COO, Oriental Cuisines.
Velan C, executive director and CEO, Ramanujam IT City said that the restaurant is open to the employees of the IT Park. “The complex has 35,000 employees – including expats and international employees who have taken a liking to the North Indian cuisine in the restaurant. It is a mutual benefit for both the employees and the restaurant,” he added.
Ramnarayanan added that the chain would scale up their supply of food for conferences and banquets for corporates. “We are taking up small orders now and we haven’t advertised it in a big way. We will scale up these operations and leverage the potential IT companies have to offer,” he added.
Speaking of the growth of the restaurants, he said that the same store growth was stagnant last fiscal, with the situation improving since April. With 11 brands, the chain operates in the bakery and restaurant chain with over 100 outlets across the country.