Restaurant chain AmRest brings La Tagliatella to India

AmRest Holdings SE, the largest restaurant operator of chains such as Starbucks, Applebee, KFC and Burger King in Central and Eastern Europe, is setting shop in India for its fine dine Italian restaurant, La Tagliatella.

It is looking to open 5-10 outlets between Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Pune in 2012 with an investment of €2 million (Rs13.89 crore) per outlet, Henry McGovern, chairman of the advisory board, AmRest Holdings, said.

“India is a quickly evolving country with a huge emerging middle-class. The good news for us is that the Italian food is highly accepted in India, and that’s what attracted us. There is a lot of opportunity at the higher end that we think no one really has fulfilled,” McGovern said. The Italian restaurant has adapted its menu for India, adding a broader vegetarian list and sauces that are free of beef stock.

The company that runs 665 restaurants in two segments — casual dining (La Tagliatella, Applebee’s and Pizza Hut) and quick service (KFC, Burger King and Starbucks) — across US, Spain, Hungary, Russia, Czech, Poland, France, Bulgaria and Serbia is looking to be a multi-brand restaurant company in India and is in talks with some brands, McGovern said but refused to share details.

“We will become a multi-brand operator in the country. I am not sure when that will be at this point,” he said.

Under AmRest Restaurants India Pvt Ltd, which will be headed by Snehal Kulshreshtha as its country head and managing director, the company will test different retail formats for La Tagliatella across malls, high streets and standalone stores. Cities like Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Indore, Agra, Jaipur, and Kochi will also be on the company’s list to open stores, Kulshreshtha, said.

McGovern said in India AmRest will start sourcing raw materials and other supplies locally in a year’s time from operations. Very soon, he said, the company will also set up a research and development centre in India, but did not specify the location. AmRest acquired the La Tagliatella trademark and franchise business from Restauravia in Spain this year. In 2008, it had acquired the second-largest franchisee of AppleBee’s chain in the US.