Saturday, November 24, 2012

Un‘family’ar

Nirula’s acquisition has brought in welcome change. But the true test of survival starts now...

Like most legendary Indian companies with quality offerings but sans the advantage of scale, this one, too, found the going tough when global sharks like McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Domino’s swamped the market with their QSR chains. And when Nirula’s found the going tough, it decided to take the M&A route with aplomb; but only as a target.

Nirula’s got off to a promising beginning in the 1930s, when the Nirula Brothers rolled out a restaurant in the heart of capital. Christened as ‘Hotel India’ it became the keystone of today’s Nirula’s. With lots of firsts to its credit, like introducing espresso coffee, snack bar, ice cream parlour – Nirula’s became the pioneer in introducing the QSR concept in India and created a platform for the modern QSR industry.

But the late 1990s saw the entry of Big Mac, KFC and several of their ilk and these players, with their 360 degree branding and massive expansion plans cornered Nirula’s. Add to this the lack of vision of entrepreneurs to take the brand on a pan India basis. Finally in June 2006, the Nirula brothers sold off their stake to Samir Juckreja and PE fund management company Navis Capital Partners.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.

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