We are charging Rs 50K as franchisee fee for five years: Nishant Joshi
We are charging Rs 50K as franchisee fee for five years: Nishant Joshi

Realizing the fact that restaurants just make money for rentals while observing that cheaper burgers have been destroying the market, Mumbai Based Nishant Joshi has launched his own restaurant chain called ‘The Burgery’ that serves premium quality burgers with rich and healthy ingredients. While marking its presence in the market, the brand is also offering variety of burgers along with fries, sides and iced lattes through its two kitchen and two restaurant franchisees operating in different locations of Mumbai. Further it is planning to open around 18-24 restaurants through franchising across Mumbai in the next four years. Thus, talking about his business model, investment and future expansion plans, Nishant Joshi, Founder, The Burgery spoke to Restaurantindia.in.

What inspired you to start The Burgery restaurant?
Before The Burgery my money was in few other restaurants, but soon I realized that in a city like Mumbai where rentals are going higher, the restaurants make money for the rentals and there is nothing like a profit. Restaurant is not just to do with your electricity or kitchen or rent, but all these things make major outlook towards overall business. When one opens a restaurant he/she has to make sure that the land is his/her own which makes sense. Ultimately in the market there should be certain amount of understanding towards rentals and the kind of income restaurant would earn.

What is the gap that you found in the burger space?
Market is there for burgers anyways but the right kind of burgers is not there. The whole process of making cheaper burgers has destroyed the market. The leading burger brands are selling burger like they are selling low price Pepsi bottles where margins are always on mass turnovers. But, we are selling burgers with higher quality and rich ingredients at premium price and even our small turnover gives higher margins.

What kind of burgers you offer?
We offer full meal tenderloin, chicken, lamb, fish and vegetarian burgers along with fries, sides and iced lattes. The Burgery is here to question your appetite with humongous burgers that are specially crafted to delight your cravings.

Please tell us about the ingredients that you inculcate in burgers?
We have vendors for our sauces. We have burger buns coming from the same bakery. We make the patty in place itself because we are giving recipes and it’s cheaper for them. We are making fresh burgers for consumers. Its organic and other things are also mix with it so the cost is bit higher. We have seven burgers and four fries including cheesy fries, masala fries, pesto fries and regular fires. Further we are going to expand our menu. Our USP is revolving around burgers and fries.

We have tied up with a company called Cool Story which is also a part of our franchisees restaurants and provide them the slushies and the manpower to make those slushies. They give flat percentage over their sales to The Burgery franchisees. So the franchisees don’t have to invest in Italian machines, raw materials and staff and it’s a co-branding thing where they do the drinks and we do the food which works well for all of us. We don’t do alcohol.

What is the franchisee model?
We have two models, one is kitchen and other is the restaurant model which we franchise. Kitchen model is more of ordering kind of a system where one can order through Zomato, Swiggy or any of these apps. And in restaurants we offer quality full meal burgers to the consumers. We are giving kitchens, backend for all the recipes, trained staff and an onboard head chef.

It’s a royalty that we charge from franchisees. In inventory as such franchisees have to take 500 burgers first in the beginning and after a month and a half when they get settle then they start making it within the place itself. We just want to give back to people whoever wants to get into hospitality business but in the right way.

How have kitchen formats been doing?
It’s doing well, because rentals are down and they can keep it open for 24 hrs. People in Mumbai want more and more night deliveries and nobody is doing burgers in the night kitchen, so it’s easier for us to attend that market.  

What is the investment for kitchen and the restaurant?
We are charging 15 lakhs for kitchen and Rs 15 lakhs plus interiors for restaurant module. For a restaurant to run one needs 500 sqft of area and only backend kitchen needs 250 sqft of area. We are charging Rs 50K as franchisee fee for five years. We want to make money for the franchisees while self sustaining for years and serving the best taste.

What is your current presence and the future expansion plans?
Presently we have two restaurant franchisees in Malad and Bandra and two kitchen format franchisees in Vile Parle and Andheri in Mumbai. We are planning to open around 18-24 restaurants only in Mumbai in the next four years. We want to be at high streets and inside the commercial buildings. Zomato contributes good orders and soon Swiggy and Foodpanda will be onboard. We want to be on everything that will bring us the orders.

 
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