Peerless Group to foray into quick service restaurants

To tap in-house brands Aaheli Xpress, Tummy Time

Lunchtime diners queue up to place their orders at a branch of Philippines' fast food giant, Jollibee, in the capital's Makati financial district August 22, 2000. Despite competition from McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut, Jollibee controls 46 percent of the quick service restaurant (QSR) market, and 80 percent of the market for burger-based meals in the Philippines. REUTERS/Alex de la Rosa

City-based Peerless Group is planning to get into the quick service restaurants (QSR) segment through its subsidiary Peerless Hotels.

This would be done under two distinct in-house brands — Aaheli Xpress (offering mainly Bengali cuisine) and another called Tummy Time which would offer Indian cuisine, bakery products and some popular Chinese cuisine. There would be a central kitchen for both these restaurants.

This venture follows the response generated by the first QSR it opened last year as part of the 85th year celebrations of its parent company Peerless General Finance & Investment Company. A small area was carved out of the head office building to house this venture.

“This will be the model that we propose to follow.. we will carve out about 200-250 square feet area from our office spaces,” Debasree Roy Sarkar, president (corporate development) Peerless Hotels Ltd. told

The Hindu . Initially, 10 such outlets would come up here, with plans to go national if the project succeeds, he added.

Greenfield project

She also said that the hotels’ outfit is implementing a ₹80-crore greenfield project at Puri, a beach-cum-pilgrim destination in Odisha extremely popular with the people of Bengal.

“This would be a four-star sea-facing property on 4.5 acre,” said Ms. Sarkar. Peerless Hotels presently has about 300 keys, spread over its hotels in Port Blair, Hyderabad and the signature Kolkata property, Peerless Inn which turns 25 this year.

A major renovation and refurbishment is now under way at the Peerless Inn Kolkata, which includes adding a club-floor. PHL is also coming out of the management contract that it had with Sarovar Hotels for this property.

“We will now run it ourselves,” she said. PHL has an occupancy level of about 70% for its hotels. Besides hotels, the group has footprints in hospital, housing, and finance.