Venky’s chicken eyes further expansion

Indian poultry giant, Venkateshwara Hatcheries is planning further international growth with its Venky’s Xprs, the Indian answer to multinational food giants such as KFC and McDonald’s.

The Pune-based firm will open 100 outlets, including in London, in the next three years with an investment of Rs 250 crore raising money from internal resources and banks.

The company, which opened its second Venky’s Xprs outlet in Hyderabad recently, expects a break-even for the new initiative in 15 months..

B. Venkatesh Rao, Joint Managing Director of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, said the company had a technical agreement with Campden BRI of the United Kingdom to get food technologies.

“We are going to procure birds directly from farmers that would be directly sent to the processing unit set up for the initiative. This will give better price for farmers irrespective of ups and downs in the market,” Rao said.

Rao is not phased by the sluggish phase the Indian poultry industry has been in recently. “The last three months were better than the first quarter. We expect that this positive trend will continue through the remaining months of this financial year,” he said.