Kwality future

Dhruv Lamba, executive director of Kwality Group, assesses the present for a brighter tomorrow. By Sanjeev Bhar

Dhruv Lamba Executive director Kwality Group

Recalling the story behind the Kwality brand's growth, Dhruv Lamba says, "The journey has been quite interesting. We started from just one restaurant in Connaught Place and today have earned ourselves over 49 restaurants in Delhi, Mumbai, Goa, Baroda and London."

Taking a cue from modern-day demand dynamics, Kwality Group has ventured into many areas of the food business with a number of formats from fine dining, food court in hospitals, malls and highways, the bakery and confectionery chain Bread and More, in addition to a number of clubs that it operates. Lamba feels there is immense opportunity in the restaurant sector, which demands the right approach with an immaculate sense of timing.

He is also aware of the challenges. "The main challenge as a new entrant was to change the outlook of the company from a family-run business and acquire a strong corporate identity," he says. It took him two years to take things in the right direction in terms of being technically right. "The sense of achievement comes from the fact that the company today is considering expansions to London and the Middle East with all our brands," avers Lamba. Of course, India's newfound confidence has helped. "Today's market environment has helped our company change and progress with time - from technology to people and infrastructure. When you are competing with international players, there is a need to change one's approach, be more aggressive and upgrade operations," Lamba adds.

The fact that the Indian government had protected the industry to a great extent didn't help at all. "This helped the traders by not opening the market to foreign brands but as far as the consumer was concerned, it had a negative effect. Today the market scenario has really developed and people want to experiment with new things."

Way ahead

The Kwality Group's progress can be visualised in alignment with the country's overall economic and hospitality growth. "Today India is the hottest place to invest in for the hospitality sector and every international hotel chain wants its brands to be present here. Our strategy is a systematic one with a very selective growth approach. We are growing YoY at a constant rate of 30-40 per cent and would like to maintain the momentum with a series of selective investments at particular locations," elaborates Lamba.

The company has set up a number of central kitchens across the country starting from its base in Delhi to Mumbai and Goa. "Our route will still remain through company-owned and operated units but the target markets now will move on to an international field. Although franchising has become the fastest way to grow a brand, we currently don't have any franchisees. We would look at franchising but in a very different manner as the rest of the industry is still in a developing phase," Lamba points out.