South Africa-based restaurant chain Barcelos, known for its flamed grilled chicken and peri peri sauces, is set to re-enter India. The company has roped in Masala Country Hospitality, part of Franchise India Group, as its master franchise for the India territory. The first restaurant under this partnership is expected to open later this year.
“Barcelos is known for being a gourmet chicken brand and we believe, will appeal to the larger middle class consumer base. In its earlier avataar in India, there were challenges of limited scalability. Under this new model, there will be a strong focus on scalability as the spicy flame grilled chicken-led menu is highly adaptable to the Indian palette,” Gaurav Marya, Founder and CEO, Franchise India, told businessline.
Also read: Chennai gets its first US chicken Popeyes restaurant
Jared Mazzis, CEO-Business Development at Barcelos, said, “Prior to Covid in our earlier stint, there were a limited number of stores on the ground and the brand had got diluted. We want to now come back with a strong focus on our core products and take the brand to the masses and focus on getting consumers to come in more frequently.”
He added that India is among the key focus markets for Barcelos as part of the international expansion strategy. The restaurant chain will initially focus on opening its outlets in the top cities of the country with a strong focus on southern India.
Also read: Popeyes outlet opens in Hyderabad
South focus
“We expect to open the first restaurant by the last quarter of this year and are in talks with developers for a strategic location. We will start with markets such as Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru. South India is the biggest chicken market and we believe the product will do very well in markets like Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru,” Marya said.
The restaurant chain has set a long term goal to set up about 100 stores in the next five years. Delivery will be a significant part of the strategy. “It will be done both through the direct delivery model and through aggregators,” he added.