The Delhi-based cafe chain will also soon open doors in London, Dubai and Mauritius
Delhi-based multicuisine restaurant chain Zoca Cafe aims to open 500 outlets by the end of the financial year 2025, Rohit Tandon (RT), the founder of Fraterniti Foods Pvt. Ltd., the company that operates the chain, revealed to IndiaRetailing in an exclusive interview.
This a steep target to achieve considering that the brand currently operates 70 outlets across India. However, Karan Makan (KM), co-founder and board member of Fraterniti Foods Pvt. Ltd. said that the company has accelerated the pace of its expansion and is opening five stores a month, on an average.
The partners of the 2020-launched brand speak about costs, revenues and expansion plans in an exclusive interview with IndiaRetailing. Excerpts…
Tell us about starting Zoca Café.
RT: We have been working in the hospitality industry for more than 25 years. So, the industry wasn’t new for us.
We planned well and took a professional approach. We researched for a whole year before we launched and cherry-picked all the trends in the industry to incorporate into this cafe chain. Perhaps that’s why it is turning out so well.
After Covid, people were hesitant to enter cafes, which led to many of them closing down. This is when we saw an opportunity: We launched Zoca Cafe as an urban concept in 2020 to attract people back to restaurants.
Our target is anybody who loves to eat good food and the brand is purely living on its aesthetics and service.
Also, our menu is our strong point as we offer multiple cuisines.
Also, we are not just restricting ourselves to cafes, but are also opening Zoca Courtyard, Zoca Diner and bar and other formats. In fact, we are also in talks to launch a Zoca resort. Being present in multiple categories in the hospitality industry gives us an edge over others.
How has been the growth since its inception?
KM: In terms of stores, we have launched more than 70 stores and are moving at a pace of five stores per month.
Each store has an average revenue of Rs 40 lakh per month. In total, we are clocking a business of Rs 20 lakh per day through our different stores.
If we accumulate the numbers, we can say that it is Rs6 crore a month and Rs72 crore a year according to the current number of stores.
How do you manage to launch 5 cafes in a month?
RT: We have our own manufacturing unit, not only for the products but for the decor as well. Aesthetics are our USP, so we pay special attention to it. Therefore, everything from tables to tiles to decor is made by us. With everything under our control, it only takes 30 days to set up a store.
In-house manufacturing helps keep costs low. We only had to invest Rs 33 lakh initially, which is 50% less than most brands in our category.
Which technologies have you adopted?
RT: We are a food tech company. Soon, we are going to launch our own app, which will resemble a virtual food court. Through this app, one can order from all the food joints under Fraterniti Foods Pvt. Ltd. including the Zoca Cafe.
What are your expansion plans?
KM: We are planning an aggressive expansion in the next two years with a target of 500 outlets pan India.
We are already present in four regions of the country with outlets in Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi NCR, Coimbatore, Chennai, Kolkata, Gujarat and many more. Further, we plan to expand to more cities and towns in India. In the next three months, 40 more outlets will be launched which are under construction right now.
We are also planning to cover college campuses and an outlet is soon going to be launched at the Amity University campus in Noida. Also, we are going to launch McZoka on the highways. We are coming up with 15 outlets at multiple locations on the Delhi -Mumbai highway. This concept will be similar to McDonald’s.
We are also planning to go international and are already under development in London, Dubai and Mauritius. We are looking for strategic international investors who can give us access to the Australian as well as the US market.
