Planning to double its sales to over Rs 20,000 crore in the current fiscal, Baba Ramdev is now gearing up to take on international fast-food brands like McDonald’s, KFC and Subway.
With people around the world preferring vegetarian food due to health benefits, Ramdev said that he is working on entering the quick service restaurant (QSR) business.
“We are working on a business plan and branding strategy to enter the restaurant business by serving nutritious and hygienic food,” he said.
The restaurant chain will offer 400 recipes and will include dishes from North and South India.
“We will not divide our menu into North Indian and South Indian. We will give people choice because there is nothing tastier and healthier than vegetarian Indian food. When we get these recipes together, all these multinationals serving chicken or mutton will have a hard time countering us,” Baba Ramdev was quoted by Times of India as saying.
Even the numbers seem to be favouring Baba Ramdev as nearly 60-70 per cent of all fast food sold in India, including burgers and pizzas, are vegetarian.
Most of the international QSR chains operating in India have included more vegetarian items to suit Indian palates.
Ramdev also said that he is planning to open his restaurants in international markets. Ramdev, along with Patanjali Ayurved's MD & CEO Acharya Balkrishna, also announced the company's interest to foray into textiles to compete with companies such as Levis, Nike and Adidas with products such as jeans and sportswear.
“We will start exports in a big way from the next financial year. Right now also we export, but it is very small. We have already started construction of a manufacturing facility for exports at SEZ in Nagpur,” said Ramdev.
The Haridwar-based FMCG firm, Patanjali, had clocked a turnover of Rs 10,561 crore in 2016-17.
"We would grow more than double this year... By the next year, Patanjali would be in the leading position and in most of the product categories, it would be number one," yoga guru Ramdev said.
