Cafe Udupi Ruchi is a chain of restaurants, cafes and kiosks that does not have to depend on a chef to serve its customers. Instead, the ready-to-make mixes from the family-owned company ensures a standard taste at any of its outlets across India
It all started when SR Rao Sahib was on a business meeting in Mumbai. “After the meeting, at around 4 pm, I went to a restaurant to have ‘pav bhaji’, which is my favourite dish. However, it wasn’t available as the chef had left. I wondered why a restaurant had to depend on a chef to make pav bhaji when we were already making easy-to-cook mixes,” he says. The Sri Family Group has been specializing in such mixes prepared using a dry blend technology. “This incident triggered the idea of running a restaurant where food can be made through our ready to- make mixes, thereby not requiring any skilled chef,” he adds.
This is claimed to be the world’s first chef-less vegetarian restaurant chain. At present there are eight outlets in Delhi-NCR. “In the south we have an outlet in Pondicherry, Bengaluru and in Tiruchirappali; we are planning to open one in Hyderabad as well,” Sahib informs. The cafe outlets are more frequented by the younger generation in the age group of 17-30.
BUSINESS MODEL
The restaurant runs on four business models: kiosk, express plus, gateway and highway. The kiosk model requires an area of 100-220 sq.
feet with an investment of Rs 12-14 lakhs; it requires about 4-5 people for operation and the return on investment is 14-15%. In the express plus model, the area required is 600-900 sq. feet with an investment of Rs 20-32 lakhs. It can accommodate 10-12 persons and the return on investment is 10-12%. In the cafe model, the investment required is Rs 60-70 lakhs and can have seating space for 15 persons. The return on investment is 10-12%. The highway model calls for an investment of Rs 80 lakhs to Rs 1.3 crore with return on investment of 9-10%.
This excludes the franchise fees. The breakeven for the kiosk business model is 15-18 months, for the highway model it will take over 30 months and for the express plus and cafe model it takes about 24-30 months.
FRANCHISE SUPPORT
Once on-boarded, the franchisee has to undergo training for 12 days. Cafe Udupi Ruchi uses in-house Epic software which calculates the preparation time of each and every product and the food delivery time. “This backward integration is done up to the factory level,” says Sahib. The technology also helps curb food wastage. The company has plans to reach 50 outlets by 2019-end, especially in the north for its Kiosk and Express Plus models, and in south for express plus, gateway and highway models. It aims to reach 300-mark by 2023.
FRANCHISE FACTS
INCEPTION YEAR: 2014
FRANCHISING SINCE: 2017
TOTAL OUTLETS: 14
INVESTMENT REQUIRED: RS 12 LAKHS- 1.3 CRORE
AREA REQUIRED: 100-3000 SQ. FT
BREAK-EVEN: 15-30 MONTHS
EXPANSION PLANS: NORTH & SOUTH INDIA
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