Pulse Foods India Private Ltd, the greenfield hospitality initiative promoted by the Rs 1,000-crore Poddar Heritage group, headed by Ficci President Saroj K Poddar, has seven outlets today.

 The company has firmed up plans to open a second restaurant in Ludhiana and one in Jalandhar within the next three months.

Speaking to Business Standard, Neeraj Jain, CEO, Pulse Foods India Pvt Ltd, said the eighth Pulse restaurant would open on March 31, 2006 at Faridabad in Haryana.

“The journey, which began in Noida on May 23, 2005, had envisaged opening eight outlets in one year of its operation. This has already been achieved in 10 months and Pulse is moving from strength to strength.’’

Pulse serves Indian food in the express service format, in which food is served within ten minutes of placing the order.

In India, roughly Rs 35,000 crore is spent annually on eating out. Indians spend about Rs 2,500 crore annually on eating at quick service restaurants. The organized fast-food business in India at present has been estimated at over Rs 2,000 crore and is growing at 40 per cent.

 “The Pulse mission is to create, develop and build a first of its kind, internationally recognized Indian food brand providing authentic, standardized, hygienic, quality Indian food at reasonable prices,” said Jain.

There is a huge business opportunity in this field with the high growth rate in per capita income of individuals, increasing urbanization, increasing disposable incomes, rise in nuclear families and with the growth in number of Indian working women,” explained Jain.

Pulse offers all options - dine-in, take-away and home delivery. The various formats that Pulse has chosen to retail in are large restaurants (typically 60-80 covers), medium restaurants (20-40 covers), small formats (typically food courts) as well as kiosks and carts. The Pulse Ludhiana falls under large Pulse restaurants.

“The growth has been possible because we thought out-of-the-box for our very innovative concept of a food technology venture. We first put our supply chain system in place, tested its viability across destinations and offered several formats of food retailing. Today, Pulse has restaurants, a presence in food courts, vends from kiosks and is creating the blueprint for cart-vending as well,’’ Jain added.

Before the end of this financial year, Pulse is planning to open eight large restaurants and 30 kiosks and carts for its customers.

( www.business-standard.com)