Mirah Hospitality has entered into a joint venture with Jiggs Kalra to set up three brands in the food chain business. Kalra will hold the majority stake.
Gaurav Goenka, director, Mirah Group said, “We will be investing Rs 25 crore in the first phase of the expansion of this JV and another Rs 40 crore in the next phase. We wanted to enter the Indian food category and partnering with Jiggs Kalra is an ideal opportunity for us.”
Lodha Capital Markets (LCM) acted as the financial advisor to the Mirah Group on its investment in the new restaurant venture promoted by Zorawar Kalra, the erstwhile co-founder of the ‘Punjab Grill by Jiggs Kalra’ restaurant chain.
In March, Jiggs Kalra and his son Zorawar Kalra had sold their stakes in Wrapster Foods to joint venture partner Lite Bite Foods, promoted by Amit Burman of Dabur.
The new JV will be called Massive Restaurants and will focus on Indian cuisine. There will be three formats under this umbrella. It will have a fine dining chain called ‘Masala Library’, a smart casual Indian cuisine chain, 'Made in Punjab’, and a sweet shop, ‘Mithai by Jiggs Kalra’.
“We will be opening three outlets of Masala Library, two of Made in Punjab and five of Mithai by Jiggs Kalra in the next one year,” said Goenka.
Zorawar Kalra, son of Jiggs kalra said, “The majority stake remains with us, but we are not disclosing the revenue sharing.”
Goenka said Kalra will look after operations, recipe, menu and designing while Mirah Hospitality will oversee the infrastructure and back end.
“We have a strategic investor and it gives us good location capability in tying up with Mirah group,” said Kalra.
Mirah Group, with revenues upwards of Rs 800 crore and diverse business interests including travels, wind energy, textiles and real estate, has another set of brands under its wings like the thali chain – Rajdhani Thali and QSR chain Falafels.
It recently announced plans to raise its maiden round of private equity funds to expand its Citrus chain of hotels.
(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)