Lite Bite Foods Pvt Ltd has aggressive plans to expand its flagship restaurant brand Punjab Grill as the industry is witnessing strong recovery trends in the post-pandemic times. The food services company, which is co-owned by Dabur scion Amit Burman, is geared up with investments of about ₹200 crore to expand the footprint of Punjab Grill to 100 restaurants in the next 4-5 years.

Rohit Aggarwal, Director, Lite Bite Foods told BusinessLine , “Punjab Grill currently has 22 restaurants across six cities in India. We now plan to sharply focus on growing this brand as it gives us good topline and good returns on investments. The brand is a category leader in the North Indian space and we have been receiving a lot of inquiries from mall developers and operators, who want to have the brand in their malls.”

Punjab Grill also has an international presence in upmarket locations at Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Washington. “We also got Technopak to asses the growth potential of the brand. So we believe there is a lot of scope to grow this brand. We will invest ₹200 crore in the next 4-5 years to take Punjab Grill to the 100 restaurants-mark in India. We will look at opening new restaurants in metros, tier-1 and tier-2 markets such as Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Guwahati, among others.” The company said it will draw on internal accruals and debt to fund this expansion. “The brand currently clocks revenues of about ₹120 crore. We expect it to become a ₹500-crore brand in the next 4-5 years,” Aggarwal said.

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The company’s aggressive expansion plans come at a time when restrictions on the restaurant industry have largely been eased across States. The sector has bounced back strongly, especially in quick-service and casual dining restaurant segments.

Aggarwal said that the company has been seeing strong recovery month-on-month. “Looking at our October numbers, many of our restaurants are back to 2019 levels and some outlets have even witnessed growth over the pre-pandemic levels. While dine-in business is growing, delivery business numbers are holding up at similar levels in the past few months and so we expect to see a very good recovery,” he added. The delivery business contributes about 25 per cent to its overall revenues currently.

Lite Bite Foods operates over 200 outlets spread across malls, high-streets and airports, under various brands such as Punjab Grill, Asia Seven, Zambar, Baker Street, Tres, The Artful Baker, among others.

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