Co-founder Raymond Andrews says that the brand is in no hurry to go public and has enough to keep growing on its own for the next two and a half, three years
Emphasising that smaller, affordable portions, value for money with no compromise on product quality is the way to grow, Raymond Andrews, the Co-founder of Biryani Blues, a quick service restaurant (QSR) brand, has stated that the goal is to add 100 new stores in the next three years. The brand is aiming to clock Rs 101 crore in revenues by the end of the current fiscal year (FY26).
In an interview with BW Retailworld, Andrews mentioned that the vision is to make the company the number one brand of choice for biryani in the true QSR format. He added that India, like the rest of the world, is moving towards individual consumption. Edited Excerpts:
What has been the notion behind Biryani Blues and what are they trying to achieve through this venture?
We started off the company 12 years ago and the vision is still very clear. We wanted to take a great Indian product like biryani to compete with the burgers and pizzas, which are global chains. In Indian cuisine, this is probably the only category of product that travels well, so you do not need to sell to the Indian consumer. It has the right mix of protein and carbs. It was a perfect product that could scale.
The love for biryani is from Hyderabad. When we moved to NCR, we realised that there’s a big gap. We said, this is a great product confined to that city and there is a great opportunity to take it across the country…The vision still is the same to make the company the number one brand of choice for biryani in the true QSR format. Most of the other competition is either completely casual dining focused or they are completely cloud kitchen focused… We believe that QSR is the only format for success in the larger scheme of things and the Biryani Blues has that.
What is the store number that you are aiming to reach by FY26, as well as the near-term?
We should reach about 85 stores in total by March 2026. We recently got funded, and the objective is that over the next two and a half, three years, we will open 100 new stores. Today, there are hardly half a dozen brands that run more than, say, 150 or 200 stores. Most of these are MNC brands. So we want to be on scale. We have always been a very organised player. So we run a completely in-house commissary that supports our brand stores.
We achieved breakeven as a company last year and from now on, every store we put in will add to that. Typically, in a chain business, the first 10 stores are very easy to build because you still have bandwidth to manage 10 between you and whoever your partners are. The 10 to 100 store journey is very tough, and most chains try to play to or stagnate in this journey. Once we cross that 100 number, we will start seeing a lot more value additions that will come in terms of economies of scale and other stuff.
What has been the sales breakup when it comes to the online channels and the offline channels?
As a company, we do about two-thirds online, that is almost 67 per cent comes from the aggregators and our delivery, and about one-third comes from our offline sales. This number is also skewed because we run around 21 cloud kitchens, which are 95 per cent delivery-focused. So as a company, when I am saying we are one-third, in places where we run brand stores will be at least 40 per cent direct sales.
The company recently raised around USD five million. Where is that capital being utilised?
The primary focus will be on opening new stores and growth capital. Other than this, we will also be trying to strengthen some of our corporate team. We will create some more in the business development, because opening 100 stores requires a lot of project support and business development team support, identifying the right place so you do not make mistakes. And a little bit on strengthening our marketing and brand marketing team.
What was the revenue and the order volume that you reported in the last fiscal year?
We reported Rs 84 crore of revenue and order count, we have been doing about 1.9 lakh orders a month. So, it should be between two and 2.4 million. Our bills are in the range of about roughly close to 400 rupees.
What are the numbers that you guys are expecting for this particular year?
We are targeting Rs 101 crore in revenues this year. I guess it is a lucky number (101). We will open about 18 new physical stores. And because of these 18 stores, the next year will be much higher. We will probably hit Rs 135 to 140 crore in the FY27 because last year we did not open any new stores. This year, when we open 18 stores, the revenue will actually hit in about 6 to 12 months. At least about 15 of these new openings will be out of Delhi NCR.
Any update on when the brand is going public?
We are not in a hurry to go public. Now that we have enough to keep growing on our own for the next two and a half, three years, we will look at whether expansion needs to come through public money, or whether we can do another series. So there is no urgency for us, or we are not looking at going public shortly, at least because once we open these 100 new stores, we will be throwing out enough cash to be self-sustaining.
What is the average delivery time the brand is reporting now?
Since we are highly populated, densely populated in NCR and north of India, our delivery times are much faster, which adds to the customer’s liking of it, and there are repeat purchases. Our delivery times would be under 31 minutes on average, but we have moved to quick commerce with a couple of these aggregators. In those orders, we dispatch the food in under six minutes, and those orders are delivered in under 15 minutes. That share is almost 20 per cent of our business now, where the food is going in under 15 minutes. And I think that will only grow, because people are getting more and more used to quick delivery.
How are you differentiating your brand from players like Biryani by kilos or Rebel Foods?
We have always been QSR-focused. We give value, affordable products. Till now, most of India was left out of ordering from quality chains of biryani, at least, because the average biryani price started at Rs 250 or Rs 300. We are very specific that we are a mass, premium kind of brand. We start our biryani at Rs 99. Many of the large burger chains and pizza chains are starting at Rs 59 and Rs 99. So that is one big differentiator. Other competitors operate on much higher bill values than we do and are targeting a different segment. We are targeting everybody.
We believe smaller, affordable portions, value for money, with no compromise on product quality, is the way to grow. We are not targeting half a kilogram (kg), one kg and all that. We believe that India, like the rest of the world, is moving towards individual consumption, and we are trying to go more and more niche. While we have a long tail of product extensions, we know that you need to have two or three hero products where your consumers are more likely to repeat and become loyal.
Your take on key trends observed among the younger generation’s food consumption?
We have got recent insights that almost 60 per cent of our orders are coming from people between the ages of 18 and 30. It is not even millennial, it is now Gen Z. Gen Z is consuming a lot of our products, so we will continue to remain, probably a quick service restaurant that identifies with social causes and other stuff which matter to these people. We have been able to make all the cost structures optimal for the formats we run. We do not run only cloud. Even our cloud kitchen makes money, our food court in a mall makes money, and even our express store generates revenue. All of which are very important for shareholder value and for the business to sustain.
What is your observation on the growth of Biryani as a category over the years? What are you doing differently?
Biryani has always been the number one category as a product for the last seven years. Swiggy and Zomato both publish reports and the number one order item on both of these is the chicken biryani. We are trying to organise this space. With biryani in the name of our restaurant itself, we are making consumers who eat biryani from any restaurant shift to an organised, branded chain.
Whatever growth has been happening in the last five years is category growth. We will grow faster than the category and the market, because we will always have switching of people from unorganised… Things have moved so much that even the multinational corporations (MNCs) chains have rice bowls and other stuff… We see a lot of shift of people becoming more conscious that if I want to eat biryani, let me eat from a biryani-focused player, rather than just any restaurant.
