Yellow Tie Hospitality Management LLP, a food and beverage franchise management company, has acquired a controlling stake in three quick-service restaurant brands.
The three brands are Umraan, Wok This Way and Health Juice Centre, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company said it made these acquisitions for its restaurant incubator programme.
"We have a capex of Rs 25 crore for a scalable restaurant incubator, under which we will be acquiring brands,†said Karan Tanna, the founder and chief executive officer of Yellow Tie Hospitality. "We are looking for brands from smaller cities like Siliguri or Vijayawada, which have distinct brand indicators but can be scaled up."
He said the company has earmarked Rs 15-17 crore for the expansion and acquisition of the three abovem-mentioned brands. He didn’t give any break-up.
Tanna said Umraan and Wok This Way have two outlets each and Health Juice Centre has six outlets.
Yellow Tie Hospitality plans to open 55 outlets - 25 for Health Juice and 15 each for Umraan and Wok This Way - across the three brands by the end of 2018.
The promoters still own a minority stake in these QSR brands and continue to run them.
The company is also planning to take Umraan to Middle East and Wok This Way to Southeast Asian markets by next year.
Founded in 2015, Yellow Tie Hospitality has three in-house restaurant brands - Dhadoom, Twist of Tadka and BB Jaan.
The firm also has exclusive licensing agreements for international brands such as Genuine Broaster Chicken from the US, Just Falalfel from Dubai and Wrapchic from England.
The company provides support to franchisee partners in the form of setting up shop, sourcing kitchen equipment and initial hand-holding.
Among other deals in the QSR space, India-focused mid-market private equity firm Lighthouse Advisors India Pvt. Ltd had invested in Wow! Momo Foods Pvt. Ltd, the Kolkata-based chain of quick service restaurants, last year.
VCCircle reported that a clutch of Indian Angel Network (IAN) investors had walked away with a bountiful harvest from their one-and-half-year-old investment in Wow! Momo Foods.
Gurgaon-based Thea Kitchen Pvt. Ltd, which runs the Biryani Blues chain, and BusaGo, a restaurant chain run by celebrity chef Nikhil Chib, have also raised money over the past 18 months.
