22.9.14

Of Burger Wars....

It's a fast food favourite that got off to a slow start, but India is finally flipping on burgers. Over the past months, five top burger chains in the world, including Burger King, Fatburger, Johnny Rockets and Wendy's, have announced their entry into the country .
Carl's Jr will start operations this year with 100 outlets across Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune and Ahmedabad, with plans to scale up to 1,000 restaurants.
Wendy's, the third largest hamburger chain in the US, plans to make its India debut in early 2015. Johnny Rockets -which positions itself as a `better burger' chain with prices of approx Rs.300 a burger -has already opened in Delhi, and next up is Mumbai. Burger King, which created a stir in Japan last week with an all-black burger, comes to Mumbai and Delhi by the end of this year, and plans to open outlets in Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Surat by January 2015.
According to market research firm Crisil, the Indian fast food market is set to double in size from Rs.3,500 crore in 2012 to Rs.7,000 crore over the next two years. The total size of India's burger market is estimated to be around Rs.1,000 crore. The unorganized sector accounts for 40% of sales while McDonald's controls 75% of the market share in the organized sector.
Interestingly, nearly 75% of all burgers sold in the country are vegetarian.
Carl's Jr took three years to re-engineer their menu for India. “60% of the menu will be vegetarian,“ says Chopra. Fatburger, which launched in Gurgaon's Cyber Hub, is also focusing on veg options and Indian flavours such as Amritsari onion rings.
Even existing chains such as the US coffee-and-doughnut chain Dunkin' Donuts have also introduced offerings such as The Tough Guy burger, which has become its mainstay now.
The burger isn't aiming to be king of fast food alone -several casual and fine dining establishments like Farzi Café and Smoke House Grill now feature gourmet burgers made with exotic ingredients as a main course.

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