s global fast food giants, such as Pizza Hut, Domino�s and McDonald�s adopt local flavours to appeal to Indian palates, homegrown Nirula�s Corner House (NCH) seems to have finally woken up to competition. The popular chain of quick service restaurants (QSR) based in Delhi has decided to take the brand national. It has chalked out a Rs 100-crore expansion plan and will open 50 restaurants in the next three years. It proposes to take the number of outlets to around 260, from the current 64, in eight years.

Nirula�s established its first American-style QSR in Delhi when it set up the Hot Shoppe in 1978. But then landgrab has not really been the company�s forte. For over two and a half decades Nirula�s confined itself mainly to Delhi and the NCR (Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida), though it has outlets in Ludhiana, Panipat and Dehradun. Now things are set to change. "By the end of year 2005, we plan to open six to eight outlets," says Vikas Attri, technical advisor, NCH. ... more