Chili’s India (South and West) to open three more restaurants in India by the end of the year at an investment of ₹5 crore a restaurant.

Speaking to BusinessLine at the launch of second Chili’s outlet in Chennai, Ashish Saxena, CEO, said the company to open two in Mumbai and one in Bengaluru by December 2017. There are 15 Chili’s restaurants in West and South India.

Chili’s India is operated by Tex Mex Cuisine India Pvt Ltd, which is franchisee of the US-based restaurant chain Chili’s Grill and Bar for the West and South India. TVS Capital Funds is a major investor in the company. Though the restaurant chain witnessed drop in sales post demonetisation and GST, Saxena feels that the expansion helps company reduce operation costs. The company was able to cut down its imports by more than 30 per cent thanks to the growing local supply-chain in the last four years.

According to Saxena, all this was possible because of growing popularity for American cuisine that involves grilled dishes. Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Capital Funds, said in a market research done by the company few years ago Chinese, Italian and Mexican cuisine top the list of the most favoured food in India since they have flavours that are similar to Indian cuisine.

“This offers a lot of potential. I think South and West India alone can account for 150 Chili’s restaurants,” he added. The company registered a revenue of ₹62 crore and expects to close next fiscal with ₹95 crore. So far, ₹75 crore investment has gone into the expansion.

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