Little Italy to expand big

Little Italy, a vegetarian restaurant chain, has extensive plans to strengthen its network in the next four to five years. The forthcoming outlets would be both company-owned as well as franchised. Talking to Abha Garyali of Franchise India Holdings Limited, Raj Mehta, CMD, Little Italy, said, “We will be opening 10 restaurants by the end of this year, out of which five would be franchised.”

At present, Little Italy has 26 outlets, of which three are company-owned and managed outlets while the rest are franchisee-managed outlets. Subsequently, the company plans to increase the number of company-managed restaurants to a significant number. Little Italy’s catering unit, which has grown to be a significant business vertical for the company, is largely managed from Mumbai and Pune. Currently, the company is not looking at any outside funds for growth, as the profits and internal accruals are sufficient to grow the business in the next few years.