Sayaji Hotels to hive Barbeque Nation into separate company

Venkatachari Jagannathan
21 February 2008

Chennai: In order grow its specialised restaurant chain Barbeque Nation, Indore-based Sayaji Hotels Limited will hive off the business into a separate entity.

As per the current plans, the company wants to increase the number of outlets under this brand to 100 across the major cities in India by the fiscal 2009-10.

Says Sajid Dhanani, managing director, "The restaurant business needs around Rs250 crore by the end of financial year 2008-09. We are interested in raising around Rs50 crore from private equity funds."

On an average, each outlet would need an investment of Rs3.5 crore, and can payback around Rs5 crore per year.

Sayaji Hotels has opened six Barbeque Nation outlets so far, one each in Mumbai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Chennai,  and two in Bangalore.

According to Prosenjit Roy Choudhury, CEO, Barbeque Nation, funds for opening 27 outlets have been tied up with State Bank of India. "Our idea is to set up around 20 pilot restaurants in major Indian cities-tier I and II- and go in for franchisee model after that," he added.