Taco Bell hits half-century in India, targets 600 outlets by 2029

Taco Bell is now 50 outlets strong in the Indian market with its latest opening in Bengaluru's Mantri Square Mall. Owned by Yum Brands Inc, the Mexican-inspired restaurant brand had entered into a collaboration with Burman Hospitality Pvt Ltd (BHPL) as its master franchise partner earlier in May 2019.

Prior to this arrangement, the Taco Bell outlets were being operated using a mix of company-owned company-operated (CoCo) stores as well as those being run by Burman Hospitality. Going forward, the overall plan is to open 600 restaurants in India by 2029.

According to Gaurav Burman, director, BHPL, the partnership with Taco Bell International for India was instituted in 2015. "Over the last four years, we have built a team of over 1,300 employees who have all worked to innovate the offering, the food and the ambience. We have now hit the milestone of 50 restaurants and will continue to work towards bringing our offerings to the four corners of India and strive to open 600 restaurants by 2029. This basically implies, we are now launching a new restaurant every 10 days,” he said.

The association with Burman Hospitality, as per Taco Bell APAC, is aimed at making India its largest market outside the United States. Currently, Taco Bell operates in 11 cities including Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Chandigarh, Coimbatore and Mysore, among others.

Ankush Tuli, managing director, Taco Bell APAC, said, “We are extremely excited about this milestone as this achievement embodies the love and appreciation that our fans have shown us over the years. We are grateful to have Burman Hospitality as our partners in India who have been instrumental in bringing Taco Bell’s unique social experience of food to life in India and we look forward to celebrating many more such milestones in partnership with them.”

The Taco Bell experience offers made-to-order and customisable tacos and burritos and other specialities with bold flavours, quality ingredients, breakthrough value, and best in class customer service. The extensive menu offers signature vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes such as the Naked Chicken Taco, 7 Layer Burrito, Chickstar Wrap, and Cheese Quesadilla, as well as desserts such as the iconic Chocodilla.

(The writer is a Mumbai-based independent business journalist and has extensively covered diversified consumer businesses over the last two decades. He can be reached at hello@ashishktiwari.com)

Zivame bucks the slowdown trend with 60% revenue growth

Amisha Jain, CEO, Zivame

The intimate wear category appears to be getting a lot of traction in the market, at a time when Indian consumers are said to be shying away from spending on innerwear products.

Earlier in October, most leading brands including Dollar, Rupa and Lux Cozi among others had reported sluggish sales citing a downward trend in the market since past few quarters. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case with the intimate wear brand Zivame that’s bucking the trend.

In fact, according to the company’s financial results for fiscal 2018-19, it has witnessed 60% growth on year in net revenues at Rs 138 crore. The company’s revenues for 2017-18 had grown 56.4% at Rs 94.2 crore as compared to Rs 60.25 crore in fiscal 2016-17.

As per a statement by Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt Ltd (owning company of Zivame), the company had a phenomenal year despite 18% decrease in marketing spends as compared to FY 2017-18. While total expenses increased marginally by 1% the company also managed to reduce losses from operations by 44% year-on-year wherein losses in FY18-19 stood at Rs 18 crore as compared to Rs 32 crore in FY17-18.

According to Amisha Jain, chief executive officer, Zivame, the company has strengthened its position across categories and deepened presence in the markets. “With tech, data and innovation at the heart of everything we do, we are set up for exponential growth over the next few years, said Jain adding that the brand is poised to grow over 75% in the next few years.

Selling 14 products every minute on a daily basis, the company is targeting an annual run rate of Rs 340 crore for fiscal 2019-20. Approximately 65% of gross sales in 2018-19 was contributed by its mobile application as compared as compared to 50% in 2017-18.

Future plans of the company include aggressive retail expansion taking the overall  store count to over 100 in the next 20-24 months. “We will also deepen presence in Tier-I towns and focus in key Tier-II and Tier-III markets. While enhancing consumer experience will be priority, we will also improve efficiencies in supply chain and operations,” said the company.

Zivame, which claims to be the largest business to consumer (b2c) brand, is also enhancing its focus on the omni-channel strategy, to ensure customers have a consistent brand experience.

“This is across channels right from Fitcode in the online portal to personalised fit sessions in the retail stores to recommend the right fit and style to consumers. We also ensure uniform prices, styles and sizes across channels and offer easy payment and delivery options,” the company said in a statement adding that it also unveiled a new brand identity earlier this year with the tagline 'Love Yourself Inside Out'.

(The writer is a Mumbai-based independent business journalist and has extensively covered diversified consumer businesses over the last two decades. He can be reached at hello@ashishktiwari.com)