Kolkata restaurateurs plan for growth, IPO

The Savourites Group, a partnership of four hotel management graduates-turned-entrepreneurs, may soon become India’s first stand alone restaurant chain to make an entry into the stock market through an initial public offering (IPO).
Savourites, which started life in 1998 as a caterer operating out of a garage in south Kolkata’s Jodhpur Park neighbourhood, today owns four eateries in Kolkata and Bangalore, including the popular “6 Ballygunge Place (6BP).”

It has plans to roll out another three in the city of its birth before the festive season in September-October.S. Ramani, the managing partner of the group, which had a turnover of Rs5.75 crore in fiscal 2007, said, “We hope to raise at least Rs30 crore to fund our expansion into Mumbai and the National Capital Region (NCR). In Mumbai, we have identified locations in Malad and Lokhandwala while in the NCR, we plan to start off in Noida. All this would require money, which we intend to raise through an IPO.”