India's top multiplex chain PVR Inox, which is going beyond cinemas to grow its food and beverage (F&B) business, will roll out its first food court in December as a joint venture with Devyani International which operates food brands like KFC and Pizza Hut.
"During the current quarter, a company namely 'Devvani PVR Inox Private Limited' has been incorporated on July 26, 2024, inter alia to undertake the business relating to development and operation of food courts situated within shopping malls in India," PVR Inox said in its financial statement of Q2 FY25.
The plan is to open three to four food courts in this financial year and eight to 10 more by the next fiscal, said chief financial officer Gaurav Sharma. "Today, all our F&B revenue comes from post-ticketed business which means that once a consumer enters the cinema after buying the ticket, then there is F&B revenue. So, we also want to get out of the cinema and attend the outside of the cinema business. And that was our strategic intent of getting into a joint venture with Devyani, which is a very reputable venture with brands like Pizza Hut, KFC and Costa Coffee."
There is no branded food court in the country and their objective is to offer a brand food court experience to people, he pointed out. Sharma also noted that the in-cinema F&B revenue will be separate from the food court business. "The idea of doing this business was to take F&B beyond cinema."
Beyond cinema
From launching its gourmet popcorn brand 4700 BC on online platforms to partnering with Zomato for in-cinema food delivery, PVR Inox has been working on different strategies to drive its F&B business.
Sharma said that they are in talks with more online food delivery players like Swiggy to drive online F&B revenues.
"If you look at Q2 FY25, F&B contributes 32 percent to overall revenues. So, a third of our revenue is coming from F&B and there is huge growth potential in this segment. Average spending per head is around Rs 136 versus Rs 250 spending on ticket prices which is around 50 percent spending compared to ticket price spending. When we look at some of our global peers it is 75 percent of ticket spending. So, there is significant potential to grow as the discretionary income of Indians increases. We expect consumers to spend more on F&B and we expect this segment's share in overall revenues to go up," Sharma said.
In FY24, PVR Inox's F&B revenue increased to Rs 1,958.4 crore from Rs 1,618 crore a year ago. In July-September, the company recorded Rs 523 crore F&B business which is up by 30 percent sequentially however down by 18 percent on a year-on-year basis.
To grow the F&B business, co-CEO Gautam Dutta said that they need to do a lot of work on the sale of food online. "When we work with players like Zomato, we realise the fact that cinemas are on the third floor and our deliveries tend to get a bit delayed. The walkers (delivery guys) need to come to the third floor. In the South, we are doing some brisk business around home delivery because a lot of cinemas do manage to get the food down to the box office where it's very easily collectible," he said.
"But overall, I would say that we still have to crack this model fully and perhaps set up dark kitchens under the name of PVR Cafe. Delivering from cinema will always give us an incremental food sale but it could only be a limited amount. So, we need to re-look at the delivery model completely," Dutta added.
Online food delivery sales is less than 1 percent for PVR Inox. "While food delivery is a small portion of our F&B revenue, we are exploring more partnership with other players like Swiggy. Outdoor catering is a local initiative that we are doing in partnership with Navratri stalls, Weekender. So, we are trying to do as much as we can outside the four walls of cinema," Sharma said.
As the company weighs different formats to boost its F&B revenue, the multiplex chain gave many quick service restaurants a run for their money in FY24 with close to Rs 2,000-crore F&B business. In FY23, PVR Inox emerged as the fifth-largest food company with an F&B revenue of Rs 1,525 crore, ahead of Restaurant Brands Asia, which clocked Rs 1,343 crore.
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