Iconic Sagar Ratna restaurant chain of South Indian food is to open at least two restaurants per month across India, said its founder Jayaram Banan, who has regained control of the chain by buying out stake held by private equity firm India Equity Partners for an undisclosed amount.
“My most cherished dream of acquiring the Kohinoor of my life, namely Sagar Ratna has come true. I have found my lost child. There has been significant increase in the number of restaurants from around 49 the time when the majority stake was sold to India Equity Partners (IEP) Fund Advisors for about Rs 180 crore in 2011 to 95 plus right now,” said Ocean Pearl Hotels Pvt ltd chairman Jayaram, who had founded the restaurant chain in 1986 in Delhi.
Ocean Pearl is the flagship company of Jayaram which runs the Sagar Ratna restaurant chain.
“We plan to expand by opening more than 100 branches and equal number of franchisees in the next three years with an aim to make it one of the largest chain of vegetarian restaurants in the country,” added Jayaram.
Actually, some trouble had erupted due to differences between the founder and the PE firm over governance and quality issues and both of them agreed in the best interest of Sagar Ratna that Jayaram needs to take control of the company and so the firm was successful in acquiring back the 100 per cent stake in the restaurant chain.
Explaining the plan of the restaurant chain, Ocean Pearl Hotels Managing Director Roshan Banan, said, “We will have a combination of both our own branches and fanchisees model and depending upon the level of the city we would decide. While in the TIER I cities we may go for our own branches as there will be scope for more branches, in the TIER II and III cities we may opt for franchisee route as there may not be appetite for more than one Sagar Ratna.”
“We are looking to open two outlets every month and we also plan to open Sagar Ratna restaurants in South India which is the next growth area for the Sagar Ratna brand,” added Roshan.
The opening of the first outlet of Sagar in the then market of Delhi’s Defence Colony had changed the fortunes of some 70 odd idle shops in the market and since then Sagar Ratna expanded horizontally with own branches and franchisee outlets across the length and breadth of the country.
When asked about what has changed Sagar Ratna since 2011, Roshan said, “Nothing has changed, we have committed and efficient employees and so we are retaining each one of them plus we also plan to offer more south Indian dishes.”
Also, Jayaram has another restaurant chain under the Swagath brand and the group runs hotels under the Ocean Pearl brand and is also aiming expansion with opening of a hotel each in Hubli and Bengaluru.