Foodlink F&B Holdings investing Rs 100 cr in Telangana

Hyderabad After the colossal success with its Delhi & Milan expansion last year, Foodlink F&B Holdings India Pvt. Ltd, India’s largest luxury catering enterprise, has announced its foray into Hyderabad, one of the fastest emerging cities of India.

Foodlink, a two-decade-old F&B service enterprise has established a global domination in the luxury catering segment. It was founded in 2003 from Mumbai and gradually expanded its footprint to Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Delhi and now Hyderabad in India and Antalya (Turkey), Dubai (UAE), and Milan (Italy), Internationally, from where it has executed premium catering projects in over 25 countries across Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

Foodlink has aggressive plans now to expand in South India starting with Hyderabad as the first city where it is setting up a full-fledged back-end infrastructure and production facility to strengthen its presence in the market.

“Hyderabad is known for Biryani, Badminton, and Bahubali and I have always been a big admirer of its rich cultural heritage and cuisine. We chose the city of Hyderabad because it is the hub of trade and commerce leading to lot of inbound and outbound MICE and grand weddings. With this launch, we aim to transform the luxury catering landscape of the south Indian territories. We plan to invest close to Rs 70-100 crore over the coming few months across our luxury catering, banquets & restaurants verticals to establish an indomitable presence here,” said Sanjay Vazirani, CEO, Foodlink F&B Holdings India Pvt Ltd.

Strategically, this marks an important development for Foodlink as Hyderabad is the city of growing aspirations. Foodlink is setting up a sprawling 15,000 sq ft well-equipped facility of International standards in Hyderabad, that will house 6000 Sq ft of warehouse and 9000 sq ft of state-of-the art kitchen facility, which forms the heart of the F&B services. It will have bulk food processing facilities, cold kitchens, bakery, cuisine-specific food production areas, walk-in cold rooms, vegetable processing centre, staff training facility, well-equipped conference rooms and offices.

Foodlink is looking to surpass a revenue of Rs 450 crore in this financial year. Speaking proudly on the launch, Sanjay says, “We see significant opportunity in Hyderabad and we are optimistic that Foodlink will hold a solid market position with its sharp, well-curated, well-thought approach. Hyderabad, will be an important part of Foodlink’s growth story as we gear up for an IPO in next 2-3 years.”

For its prestigious clientele, which includes business families, UHNIs, and large corporate entities of India, Foodlink has curated and executed the F&B experience for some of the most iconic and high-profile events, including the Ambani-Piramal Wedding, the Deepika-Ranveer Wedding, and recently for K L Rahul-Athiya Shetty Wedding, in addition to notable corporate & government events like the Mumbai International Airport Terminal 2 launch, Jio Brand launch, Vibrant Gujarat, and Gulf Food.

Foodlink is well-known to many high-profile individuals and corporates in Hyderabad already, having executed exceptional events such as the weddings in GVK family, Apollo Hospital family, NTV family and Reddy Labs. They have been active in Hyderabad market in the last 6 to 7 years bringing the best from Pan Indian & Global Cuisine to Hyderabad, while keeping the local flavour and culture in mind.

It has a combined capacity of over 10 lakh meals/day. It has served 75 per cent of Forbes India's top 100 businesses and families. It is the only Indian caterer with a global footprint having done events in over 25 countries for clients from across 10 countries. It has catered to high volumes of guests ranging from 10,000 to 40,000 per event.

Foodlink has expanded to become the largest pan-India brand with a rising global presence throughout Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East and Africa. Through their International offices in Dubai, Milan & Antalya they cater to Middle East, European and Mediterranean region. Foodlink has revolutionised the Indian catering industry. The founder Mr. Sanjay Vazirani is well-recognised to have changed the hospitality industry over the past 20 years by building top-notch infrastructure and innovative approaches to draw in unheard-of levels of growth. Today's Foodlink is a multifaceted hospitality company that oversees restaurants, cloud kitchens, indoor banquets, and ultra-luxury catering. It owns and operates over 35 restaurants and cloud kitchen outlets across the brands India Bistro, China Bistro, Glocal Junction and ‘Art of Dum’ which are leaders of the North Indian, Pan-Asian, world fusion cuisine and Awadhi Dum Pukht cuisine respectively across India & UAE.

Professional catering is a growing Industry in India with an estimated current size of Rs 20,000 crore demonstrating an estimated annual growth of around 25 to 30 per cent. Catering has become a crucial factor for the success of any event like a social gathering, corporate event or wedding. There are around 10 million weddings that happen every year in India. Hyderabad holds a lot of potential as the city is grand and royal in its attire, cuisine, lifestyle and weddings. The city is host to 2000 to 2500 big and fat weddings every year, with average budgets of Rs 5 crore. The wedding market in the city is estimated to be around Rs 12,000 crore.