Snippets

Le Royal Meridien, Savera, Club Mahindra eyeing Pondy

In response to the Pondicherry government's expression of interest (EOI) to set up a five-star resort in the town of Pondicherry, reliable sources have revealed that Appu Hotels, owners of Le Royal Meridien - Chennai, the Savera group and Club Mahindra have submitted their proposals for the same. The tourism department had invited an EOI for designing, setting up and running a resort, spread over ten acres of land, close to Arikamedu, once populated by Romans. The land would be given on a 33-year lease. The Pondicherry government will soon be revising the subsidy it provides to the hospitality industry from 20 per cent (subject to a minimum of 25 lakh) to 25 per cent (subject to the maximum of a crore). The investor can get the subsidy after two years of operations in the union territory.

VCI to foray into service apartments

Vacation Club International (VCI), a provider of marketing services to hotels, is planning to venture into the service apartments sector with its newly floated company, VCI Consulting Ltd. It will invest around Rs 60 lakh per apartment and it is looking to set up 50 apartments in the beginning.

Targeting high-end travellers, VCI is looking to tap metro cities of Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi. The average tariff would range between Rs 4,500 to Rs 5,500.

VCI currently handles the exclusive marketing rights for Aamby Valley Hospitality (Lonavala), Golden Palms Hotels & Spas (Bangalore), Fort Radisson (Kolkatta) and Le Meridien (Kathmandu) apart from owning two resorts - Royal Banon Resort (Manali) and Dharamshala (Himachal Pradesh).

Pizza Corner to add ice-cream and donuts to menus

The Pizza Corner chain is loking to add ice creams, soups, buns and donuts to its menus. It will bring Cream and Fudge Factor (ice creams) and New York Deli, (soups, salads and sandwiches), to India before December this year. Bun Queen and Donut Baker, which are currently at the prototype stage, are also likely to be introduced in all markets, including India. Moreover, Global Franchise Architects (GFA), the Geneva-based group, which operates 47 Pizza Corner and seven Coffee World outlets in the country, is also considering promoting co-located dine-ins and food courts in the country. Given the fast expansion to its portfolio of products, the group feels it is ready to pitch for co-located outlets and offer food court solutions to franchisees.

Though the exact numbers are not available, it is believed that the pizza market in India is of the order of Rs 300 crore per annum and growing by leaps and bounds every year. While Pizza Corner will be adding another 33 outlets to take the total to 80 by December this year, GFA is looking to take the total number of Coffee Worlds to 15, eight of which will be in Bangalore alone.