Home-grown restaurant chain Burger Singh aims to operate 100 outlets in the next 2-3 years. The company, which recently opened its first “drive-thru” outlet in Gurugram, also plans to raise about ₹50 crore in Series B funding by early next year.
Launched in November 2014, the restaurant chain has already raised over $1 million in pre-series A funding from strategic & angel investors.
Kabir Jeet Singh, Founder & CEO of Burger Singh, said, “We expect to achieve breakeven at the company level by this year-end. Post that, we will begin talks to raise Series B round of funding of about ₹50 crore. We will look at roping in institutional and PE investors with a long-term vision.”
The burger chain currently operates 25 outlets, a majority of which are located in the Delhi-NCR region, besides in Pune, Nagpur and Dehradun.
“By this year-end, we expect to have 40 operational outlets. We will first look at expanding in the northern and eastern regions. Besides Delhi-NCR region, we are also looking at expanding in Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow and Kolkata,” he added.
Small format stores
The company, which is positioned in the fast casual restaurant segment, expects to hit the 100-outlet mark by 2020-21. Singh said the company is strategically looking at small format stores of about 500 sq ft for ramping up its footprint, with a strong focus on the home delivery business. “We have adopted a disciplined strategy of looking at small format stores for quicker returns on investment instead of getting into flashy retail locations with high rentals,” he added.
The burger chain is also keen to expand through the franchisee-owned company-operated model.
Asked about the potential for additional drive-thru outlets, Singh said, “We have looked at this concept carefully. In India, predominantly drive-thru outlets are located on highways. But we believe they work better within city limits and suburbs and that is the strategy we will adopt.”
Indian fusion burgers
In August, Burger Singh announced its foray into the UK market through a master franchise deal. “We believe there is a huge potential for our Indian fusion burgers in the UK market. While the first two outlets are already operational in London, through this master franchise deal, 18 additional outlets will be set up in the next three years,” Singh added.