Before KFC and McDonald’s took notice of Chennai, it was a Malaysian restaurant that saw the potential the city offered. Tagged as a conservative place when it came to dining choices, it was surprising that a quick service restaurant like Marrybrown caught the fancy of kids and families alike when it launched.
Now celebrating 15 years of operations in India, the restaurant, with 48 outlets in three states, has launched a celebratory menu with an international flavour. This includes fried chicken, wraps and burgers with Manhattan and Caribbean seasoning and peri peri, Brazilian and Cuban sauces and a new range of smoothies.
MGM Anand, managing director of the MGM Group of Companies which holds the Indian franchise, says that drastically changing the menu does not work: the key is to occasionally offer different options to give the diners some variety. “Our idea was to grow with our customers so they keep coming back. And all our customers come back for very specific reasons — the fried chicken, the fries, the Hotouch burger. They return for the flavour so we do not change that,” he says.
Recalling the time they started the franchise, Anand says that the biggest challenge was getting the suppliers and the machinery required to maintain consistency. He says, “Moving forward from those issues, the acceptance of Marrybrown has been great till now.”
Started in 1981, the restaurant wanted to give an international flavour, says co-founder of Marrybrown Nancy Liew. “We have a team of chefs constantly working on recipes in terms of taste, presentation and price point. Before we launch in any country, we do an intensive survey and work the menu to accommodate local tastes as well,” she says.
In India, for instance, they began research two years ahead of launching. Nancy says that since Malaysian, Indian, and most of South East Asian cuisine have a lot of similarities and flavour profiles, adapting the taste for this region was not too much of a challenge. “The fried chicken is our specialty and so we do not change the recipe for that. The other dishes are meant to be inclusive, like the vegetarian wraps and burgers and rice dishes,” she says.
Expansion plans are on in India and the company is looking forward to opening outlets in more tier-2 and tier-3 cities, the latest being in Thiruvarur. The family restaurant continues to grow, as Nancy says, “We want to provide a setting that serves togetherness and happiness and so everything we do aims to achieve that.”
