Globally renowned for its beef burgers, McDonald’s had its ‘holy cow’ moment when it recently opened an all-veg outlet in India. Will the move bring in new set of customers for the company which is aggressively looking at growth options amidst the competitive QSR space
Vikram Bakshi, Managing Director and JV partner (via his Connaught Plaza Restaurants), McDonald’s India (North & East), is quite a busy man. But as part of his job Bakshi ensures he takes time out of his busy schedule to travel: across cities, on main streets and highways (often tasting the local food fair). The idea is to gain an understanding of the different places, its people and most importantly glean some insight into their eating preferences.
One such recent trip took him to the holy Vaishno Devi shrine located in the Himalayan foothills in Jammu & Kashmir. People are said to come into epiphanies in the most unexpected places and circumstances and it was in Vaishno Devi that Bakshi seems to have met his Eureka moment. What hit him with the full force of commercial logic was the realisation that despite being a bustling place teeming with the multitudes of pilgrims making their progress to the holy Vaishno Devi site, the shrine’s base station at Katra stood out for singularly lacking in any organised food outlet. That there was no organised food chain to serve the millions who visit the shrine annually got him thinking. An idea started germinating and in quick succession a business strategy was born.
Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, Bakshi’s intuition took shape soon. In August, McDonald’s opened its first all-veg restaurant in India at Katra. McDonalds, the world’s second-largest food chain after Subway, is betting on its first fully vegetarian outlet to appeal to pilgrims on limited budgets, such as young people and families. Considering that most Indians are religious by nature (with the world’s largest concentration of vegetarian people), McDonald’s selective gambit to open vegetarian outlets makes good business sense as it can pave the way for building a strong platform for future growth in a country like India, which has a predominantly Hindu and non-meat consuming population. A recent survey showed that fully 40% of the Indian population follows a vegetarian diet and McDonald’s is seeking to cash in on this opportunity by planning to open many more vegetarian restaurants across the country.
The Ray Croc founded company, which runs over 33,000 outlets in almost 120 countries all over the world, serving roughly 70 million customers daily, counts its beef-based Big Mac burger as its signature dish worldwide but has been very flexible with its standard offerings in India. It has believed in tailoring its menus to suit local tastes – it is already beef and pork-free in India to avoid offending Hindu and Muslim sensibilities – and has opted for localized products with a strong veg product line sell more than what its other American peers have to offer. McDonald’s vegetarian fair accounts for almost 50% of its menu and sales in India, which is higher than its strongest competitor KFC that has less than 25% vegetarian offerings on its menu.
Vikram Bakshi, Managing Director and JV partner (via his Connaught Plaza Restaurants), McDonald’s India (North & East), is quite a busy man. But as part of his job Bakshi ensures he takes time out of his busy schedule to travel: across cities, on main streets and highways (often tasting the local food fair). The idea is to gain an understanding of the different places, its people and most importantly glean some insight into their eating preferences.
One such recent trip took him to the holy Vaishno Devi shrine located in the Himalayan foothills in Jammu & Kashmir. People are said to come into epiphanies in the most unexpected places and circumstances and it was in Vaishno Devi that Bakshi seems to have met his Eureka moment. What hit him with the full force of commercial logic was the realisation that despite being a bustling place teeming with the multitudes of pilgrims making their progress to the holy Vaishno Devi site, the shrine’s base station at Katra stood out for singularly lacking in any organised food outlet. That there was no organised food chain to serve the millions who visit the shrine annually got him thinking. An idea started germinating and in quick succession a business strategy was born.
Like a self-fulfilling prophecy, Bakshi’s intuition took shape soon. In August, McDonald’s opened its first all-veg restaurant in India at Katra. McDonalds, the world’s second-largest food chain after Subway, is betting on its first fully vegetarian outlet to appeal to pilgrims on limited budgets, such as young people and families. Considering that most Indians are religious by nature (with the world’s largest concentration of vegetarian people), McDonald’s selective gambit to open vegetarian outlets makes good business sense as it can pave the way for building a strong platform for future growth in a country like India, which has a predominantly Hindu and non-meat consuming population. A recent survey showed that fully 40% of the Indian population follows a vegetarian diet and McDonald’s is seeking to cash in on this opportunity by planning to open many more vegetarian restaurants across the country.
The Ray Croc founded company, which runs over 33,000 outlets in almost 120 countries all over the world, serving roughly 70 million customers daily, counts its beef-based Big Mac burger as its signature dish worldwide but has been very flexible with its standard offerings in India. It has believed in tailoring its menus to suit local tastes – it is already beef and pork-free in India to avoid offending Hindu and Muslim sensibilities – and has opted for localized products with a strong veg product line sell more than what its other American peers have to offer. McDonald’s vegetarian fair accounts for almost 50% of its menu and sales in India, which is higher than its strongest competitor KFC that has less than 25% vegetarian offerings on its menu.
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