Au Bon Pain set to roll out

Spencer's, the retail flagship of the Rs 13,500-crore RPG Enterprises, will set up 100 standalone Au Bon Pain outlets across Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad over the next 18 months. The group will also set up a base kitchen-central bakery in Bangalore with a total capital outlay of Rs 50 crore, for which land has already been identified. Goenka said that Spencer’s had actually floated a joint venture company (JV) —Novel Confectioners — with Varin Narula, director and promoter of Au Bon Pain, Thailand. This JV will be the master franchisee of Au Bon Pain in India. The first 2,000 sq ft outlet of Au Bon Pain will come up in Bangalore in December, followed by another 99 in 12 months thereafter.After consolidating its position in the South, the cafeteria chain will move to northern India and from there to eastern India.
Spencer’s, which operates through four formats — Spencer’s Hypermarkets, Spencer’s Super, Spencer’s Daily and Spencer’s Express, has retail space of more than 2 million sq ft and more than 400 Spencer’s stores across 65 cities. The RPG retail arm has plans to have some Au Bon Pain outlets within Spencer’s stores as well. At present, the US-based cafeteria chain has more than 230 outlets in the US, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.
Au Bon Pain is known for serving authentic artisan breads, scrumptious pastries, savoury sandwiches, soups and salads. Spencer’s will now bring that taste and nutritional value to India. And that’s not all. Spencer’s will source all its requirements from the US bakery.
“We are delighted to have Au Bon Pain as our partner, which will enable us to introduce in India a world-class, fast casual dining experience. The association therefore is commensurate with our brand proposition — Taste the World, which embodies the best that the world has to offer to our customers,” said Goenka.