Hotel Junior Kuppanna, a family-owned brand serving Kongu cuisine, has shed 25% of its stake to Chennai-based Super Capital Advisors, for an undisclosed sum.
With professionals coming in, the original promoters now want to strengthen the brand and experiment with newer business formats.
“We have been looking for an investor for three years. Some of our franchisees were not performing well and we had to close them. Now we want to strengthen this 60-year-old brand,” said K. Murthy co-chairman of Junior Kuppanna. He is from the promoter family.
P. Arumugan, another promoter and family member said, “We want to strengthen our base here in Tamil Nadu and then move to other States.” The firm has set a target of setting up 250 restaurants across India and abroad, by 2025.
When asked whether it was a good time to invest in the hotel business, Sameer Bharat Ram, director of Super Capital Advisors, said with COVID-19, the dynamics of the hotel industry had changed, so the focus would be now be on setting up outlets with less than 100 seats. “Plans are on to set up small outlets on highways, preferably in petrol pumps,” he said.
Both promoters and new investors said that by March 2021, six new outlets would come up in Chennai. Currently, the firm has over 40 restaurants across Tamil Nadu. The hotel, which started its journey in 1960, is now going in for a rebranding as well.
