April 6,2013: As the Indian quick service food market expands there are many a fast food chains which are setting up base in India. The pace at which it’s being set has also gone up particularly looking into the success of outlets like KFC,
McDonald’s etc. Latest to join the bandwagon is Australian fast-food chain Country Chicken which has more than 450 outlets spread across, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia.
This Australian fast-food chain launched its first restaurant in Nungambakkam, Chennai as part of expanding its foot print in this part of the world. Tantush Foods has brought Country Chicken into India and they have taken the master franchisee for the South. The restaurant has been set up at an investment of over Rs.1.5 crore. The investment has been high since this being a flagship outlet; they had to set up the infrastructure like cold storage facility and processing facility. Generally the investment needed for an outlet would be around Rs.75 lakhs.
Country Chicken has plans to set up central processing plants where bulk of the processing can be done. According to a statement by Peter Austin, CEO and Chairman, Country Chicken, the company would set up central processing plants, where almost 75 per cent processing of the dishes would be done to ensure standardisation of taste and quality of the food.
The company is yet to identify a master franchisee for North, East and West markets of India. Though Country Chicken would be expanding to other states, their target now is to focus exclusively on southern states through sub-franchising.
