Spencer's to dish out Au Bon Pain cafes  ( July '16,2008, Economic Times)

Spencer’s Retail, part of the Rs 13,500-crore RPG Enterprises, has tied up with the US-based Au Bon Pain to launch a chain of fast casual dining and bakery cafes across the country. As part of this, it plans to set up 100 standalone cafes in the next two years at an outlay of Rs 50 crore.

Au Bon Pain, the Boston-based fast casual dining and bakery chain, operates over 225 outlets in the US, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. For the Indian operations, a JV company, Novel Confectioners Ltd, has been formed between Spencer’s Retail and Varin Narula, which would be the master-franchisee of Au Bon Pain in India.

Incidentally, Varin Narula is director and promoter of Au Bon Thailand, with 11 years of experience in handling the brand’s franchise in Thailand. “The Indian joint venture is planning to set up its first 2,000 sq ft flagship store in Bangalore by December 2008, followed by outlets in Hyderabad and Chennai.

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We will initially be concentrating on the south India, after which we will be moving to the North, East and West, respectively,” RPG group vice-chairman Sanjiv Goenka said on Tuesday. He was speaking at a press conference to announce the tie-up with Au Bon Pain.

In India, the 100 standalone stores will have an average size of 1,500 sq ft though smaller formats, such as shop-in-shops or outlets in college campuses and airports, among others, will also be explored. A factory will be set up in Bangalore initially to supply products to the southern region.