American Burger Chain Carl Jr to enter India

Carl Jr is an American Based Fast food restaurant chain, operates in Western and Southwestern states. As of 2013, it started expanding in Canada, Dominican Republic, Brazil, Rico, Malaysia, Denmark, New Zealand, Singapore, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand, UK, and China. Carl Karcher is the founder of this chain and started operation in 1941. It is in the top ten fast food chains in the United States after Subway, McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Wendy, Taco Bell, Popeyes, and Church Chicken.

In April 2015, Indians will have choice to taste charbroiled burgers by Carl Jr. This brand has been endorsed by the like of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Padma Lakshmi. The American fast food chain has already signed a franchise agreement with city based Cybiz BrightStar Restaurants Pvt Ltd, owned by CybizCorp. Over the next five years, there would be at least 100 Carl Jr outlets in India. The chain targets to open about 1,000 outlets across India over 10-15 years.

Carl Jr joins the race with the world’s largest burger chain Burger King, which had formed a joint venture with private equity fund Everstone Capital last year to develop its presence in India and plans to open the first outlet in India on 9 November 2014. The chain would spend $25 Million in the first five years in developing a presence in India. CKE Restaurant Holdings, the parent company of Carl Jr had already invested $1.5 Million in India in Consumer Research, product development and tasting trials during the past three years.

In a recent report, it is noted that Indian Food service market will soar to $92 Billion by 2020 from $48 Billion. Of this, the $3 Billion chained restaurant segment is expected to see the fastest growth rate of 15 percent, with the size pegged to touch $8 Billion by 2020. 

Burger King to open stores in India

Burger King is a global chain of Hamburger Fast Food Restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King. Its two Miami based franchises, David Edgerton and James McLamore, purchased the company, and named it Burger King. The company became public in 2002 and it had over 13000 outlets in 79 countries. In 2010, 3G Capital of Brazil acquired a majority stake in BK in a deal valued at US $3.26 Billion.

In recent news, Burger King will open its first few outlets in India by the end of this year. Company aims to make India, along with China, its biggest market in Asia-Pacific. The outlets will come up in Mumbai and NCR. Coming at a time when rivals like McDonald’s, Domino’s and Yum brand have established a long lead here. Burger King will look to penetrate the untapped smaller towns to gain a toehold in the market. China and India will be two growth engines for the company.

Burger King has a joint venture with Everstone group; a Singapore based private equity and real estate group, to open a few hundred stores in next ten years in India. Burger king formed a joint venture in 2012 to open 1000 restaurants in China by 2015. It recently started selling burgers in Pakistan and Brunei.

Currently, almost 40% of the western fast-food market by value sales lies between Delhi NCR and Greater Mumbai. Burger King and Everstone may look to sub-franchise the brand for airport and railway retailing at a later stage. While Burger King offers vegetarian burgers and spicy bean burgers in UK and Canada, it will unveil a segregated vegetarian menu in India. Nearly two-thirds of Indians now eat out at least once a week, boosting the growth of restaurant industry, which is expected to touch $26 Billion in 2015.