Cloud kitchen operator Curefoods expect at least 15 to 20 per cent of its revenue to come from offline stores or brand restaurants by end of 2023, Ankit Nagori, CEO of Curefoods told businessline.

Nagori based this estimation on the success of its five pilot restaurants (biryani brand, Sharief Bhai) in Bengaluru. Started in late 2022, Sharief Bhai’s offline outlets now make 30 per cent of the brand’s total revenue. Curefoods has planned to open 30-odd brand restaurants this year. These will be individual brand outlets as opposed to multi-brand restaurants/food courts that have been tried by its competitor Rebel Foods. 

Initially, these restaurants will be opened in the top six-eight Indian cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, among others. These stores will be opened for three fast-growing brands under Curefoods umbrella including gourmet pizza brand Nomad Pizza, Sharief Bhai and flagship healthy food brand Eatfit. 

Curefoods has also raised a fresh ₹300 crore round which will be used for the offline foray, among other investment areas. Commenting on the competition in the online space, Nagori said, “For an online-only F&B brand, the competition is not only between the food and beverage brands, but iwith every D2C brand including those in fashion, electronics and other categories. Every online brand is competing for the same 70-80 million customer base. This means the overall cost of digital marketing always keeps on going up and makes it expensive for a digital-only brand.”

He added that although there are ways to control online marketing costs and optimise it, a mix of offline and online should bring down the overall cost of acquisition for Curefoods. On the back of this offline foray, Nagori expects Curefoods to achieve company-level profitability in the next two quarters and is also targeting a ₹1,000 crore ARR by end of 2023.