Yo! China Set To Tap RTC Food Market  ( January '12,2004, FE)

The packaged Chinese ready-to-cook (RTC) food segment, which has long been a domain of Nestle India and Indo Nissan with their fast selling brands like Maggi-2 minute noodles and Top Ramen, respectively, will soon see a new player. Eyeing the volumes-led market is Delhi-based Moods Hospitality Pvt Ltd, the holding company of Yo! China fast-food Chinese restaurant which now plans to diversify from restaurants to packaged food retailing by offering packaged Chinese fast-food at Chinese prices.

“Emerging market trends clearly indicate that there’s a huge market to be tapped. We are, therefore, looking at packaged foods where the scale is unlimited,” Moods Hospitality promoter Arun Chadha told FE.

“Our focus is very clear, we want to maximise the opportunities in the Chinese fast-food segment by providing quality Chinese food at Chinese prices,” adds Yo! China managing director Ashish Kapur.

Packaged food retailing is, in fact, just one of the three revenue generating streams identified by the company. The other two streams being pursued by Moods are fast-food restaurants and institutional catering.

While Moods hopes that its packaged food initiative will take off in 2005, it has, however, started conducting research on a few Chinese recipes now and is simultaneously creating the infrastructure to manage the new business segment.

To start with, the company is currently setting up its second base kitchen spread across 9,000 sq ft in Gurgaon, Haryana, with an investment of Rs 1.5 crore in addition to its existing one which is also located in Gurgaon. The company is also increasing the capacity of its kitchen from the current 7,000 meals a day to 20,000 meals a day.

Meanwhile, Moods is also going ahead with the expansion plan of its restaurant chain. It plans to open seven new outlets in the current year in and around Delhi with an investment of Rs 10 crore. In addition, it plans to invest Rs 50 lakh in R&D. Moods has invested Rs 65 lakh in its first outlet.

For Moods, the need to step up its back-end operations has also been necessitated with the increase in its institutional catering business. Apart from its tie-ups with American Express, Churchill, Citibank and Gillette for serving corporate lunches, it has recently bagged one of the largest corporate accounts: GE Caps where it serves 6,000 meals once a week.