US-based health and wellness café Smoothie Factory plans to invest around Rs 50 crore on opening 40-45 company-owned stores in India within five years, as per a PTI report.
In all, including the franchises, it is looking at having up to 90 outlets by the end of 2019.
The company would explore the North and East regions and would open at places like Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata.
Smoothie Factory offerings include real fruit smoothies, freshly squeezed juices, frozen yogurts, gourmet panini's, salads and waffles.
"In the next five years, we would have around 90 ou1tlets, in which 40 to 45 would be company owned and the rest would be franchise based," Smoothie Factory India Chief Brand Officer Arjun Khera told PTI.
It would invest around Rs 50 crore to set up its company owned outlets in next five years, he added. Out of total 90 outlets, 50-60 would be bigger café formats spread between 1,200-1,500 sq ft and rest would be mini formats with 400 sq ft, Khera added.
On funding, he said: "At the moment it is through private funding of the company. May be in the future we would be looking for investment as angel investors."
The company is targeting 15-40 year age group consumers, who are very health conscious and take high quality and nutritious ingredients, he said.
"Each cafe format store would have expected revenue of Rs 15 lakh per month and the smaller one would have of around Rs 9 lakh per month," Khera said.
The company has started its media campaign recently. Apart from that it is also working on localised flavours in its menu.
"Right now we are revamping our menu, we are launching shakes more suited for the Indian tastes. In the food section, sandwiches which we are serving have tandoori options, which suits more of localisations," he said, adding that the company is soon going to launch a new menu with Indianised version.
The company, which started operations here in September 2013, has one operational outlet at Nehru Place and the next one is coming up at the central Delhi's Connaught Place this month. It has one small outlet in Gurgaon also.
Started from Carrollton, Texas, in 1996, Smoothie Factory has presence in 13 countries including USA, India, China, Vietnam, Qatar, UAE, and Saudi Arabia.
