Coffee fans in India will be a happy lot as Hardcastle Restaurants' plans to open a McCafé at every McDonald’s restaurant by 2022.
Hardcastle Restaurants is the master franchisee of McDonald's restaurants in west and south India.
In a candid chat with Moneycontrol, Smita Jatia, Managing Director, Hardcastle Restaurants said, “By 2022, aspiration is every McDonald's will have a McCafé. There is a certain ambience that we want to give with coffee. So, all stores will be revisited to add McCafe outlets.”
She said they are the second largest coffee player in terms of units and the coffee category is growing by 16 percent. McCafe has witnessed a growth of 600-700 percent in the last three-four years.
She attributed robust growth of McCafe to affordability for youngsters or millennials who are largely price conscious.
Westlife Development, owner of Hardcastle Restaurants aims to double their revenue to Rs 2,000-2,500 crore by 2022. In FY19, the total revenue increased to Rs 1,401.6 crore compared to Rs 1,134.87 crore in the previous financial year.
The company reported an eight percent rise in net profit to Rs 7.14 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2019. For the full 2019, the company's net profit surged to Rs 40.3 crore as against Rs 12.86 crore in the previous fiscal.
The company had taken a range of initiatives, coupled with strict financial discipline and maximisation of operational efficiencies, which helped it deliver a strong year, she said.
“We continued to invest in growing brand extensions McCafe, McDelivery and McBreakfast. We added 41 new McCafes, taking the total count to 190,” Jatia said.
The company has added 51 delivery hubs, taking the total count to 216 and also expanded its delivery coverage through third-party aggregator partnerships, increasing accessibility and convenience.
It also opened 25 new restaurants, and entered four new cities, including Thiruvananthapuram, Puducherry, Tirupati and Kakinada, taking the total restaurant count to 296 across 41 cities, the company said.
Hardcastle recently opened its 300th McDonald’s store in Mumbai and has set vision 2022 wherein they are planning to open 400 stores by 2022.
Jatia said the company is planning to convert McDonald’s outlets more technology-led.
“We have installed ordering kiosks in our restaurants, which will do away from standing in the queue and the order will reach your table, installed air chargers on every table along with gaming kiosks for kids.”
So far, there are 25 such technology-driven outlets.
