Restaurant chain Barbeque Nation plans to go global

Sharath Chowdary 

Indian restaurant chain Barbeque Nation is planning to expand its stores globally. It is going to begin with a store in Dubai and soon plans to open restaurants in few Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) countries, Barbeque Nation Hospitality Ltd CEO Sameer Bhasin told The Dollar Business Bureau. 

Sameer said, “After a successful journey in Indian cities over the last ten years, the company is all set to popularise its casual dining-out brand worldwide. There is a lot of demand for Indian food in GCC and SAARC countries. The Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who live in these regions appreciate our cuisines. We would like to introduce our brand in global markets.” 

Speaking about the restaurant brand, he said, “The casual dining-out market is highly segmented today. There are several layers between QSR (Quick service restaurants) and fine dining. We are trying to cater to a wide segment by offering different experiences. Barbeque Nation is famous for its variety of foods, under the same brand. It offers a range of Indian, American, Oriental and Mediterranean cuisines, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian.” 

“We have established 72 restaurants across 26 cities of the country, and out of them 23 stores are in eight cities of south India. We are expecting to further open ten restaurants, this fiscal year. The company is looking to make the overall number of outlets to be 100 by next fiscal and touch 300 by 2020,” Bhasin said detailing about the brand’s long term goals. 

The restaurant chain also has plans to introduce a new brand - Barbeque Nation Lite to address the demand for dining-out market in tier II and tier-III cities. The dining experience will be somewhat different when compared to Barbeque Nation chain. This will be launched across several cities over the next few months, he added. 

Bhasin was speaking to the media after launching a refurbished Barbeque Nation outlet in Hyderabad on Tuesday along with the company’s Regional Manager Operations Ritam Mukherjee and Miss India World 2016 Priyadarshini Chatterjee.