Chennai-based FMCG major CavinKare is diversifying. From shampoos, pickles and beauty parlours, it is now entering the hospitality business and getting into restaurants. After Pondicherry, it has just opened its second restaurant in Chennai, report CNBC-TV18’s Divya Rajagopal & Isha Dalal.

There's a lot cooking at Chennai's oldest and biggest FMCG company. CavinKare is looking to take Tamil Nadu's restaurant industry by storm, with its own chain. It already has one South Indian restaurant named CK's in Pondicherry, and has now opened up a multi-cuisine joint in Chennai, under the banner Veg Nation. However, CavinKare says this venture is still at the experimentation stage.

CK Ranganathan, MD, CavinKare, says, “I would say this is also under experimentation, and we are in the process of doing more experimentation, new formats before concluding which are the formats we should take forward in a big way. For example, when we started our saloon business we experimented with five different types of salons and eventually chose two out of them and expanded. And that's exactly what we are duplicating here.”

CavinKare plans to one day own a high-end national chain. And will invest close to Rs 1 crore in every restaurant. It expects Rs 100 crores in revenues from its restaurant business alone. It is also looking at entering the packaged foods business, a move that will give its restaurant business an effective springboard.

The personal care segment still dominates the company's books. However, CavinKare says that last year, the food segment has driven growth in the FMCG space. This is one space where the FMCG major is definitely looking to go big.