"Finding Right Partners Is The Key To Expand"
Dubai-based leading French bakery and Restaurant Pascal Tepper is all set to mark its debut in India with World Iconic Brands.
WIB or World Iconic Brands is a specialist franchise development company in India. Five-generation-old brand, it is a modern dine-in bakery and the brainchild of master baker Pascal Tepper who holds the 'Meilleur Ouvrier de France' title, a much-coveted recognition as the best French artesian in the baking trade.
In a tête-à-tête with Restaurant India, Siegfried Nierhaus, Managing Partner and Founder of PTG Consulting, talks about the contemporary dine-in bakery concept, and the growth and expansion plans of Pascal Tepper in India.
Pascal Tepper is a contemporary dine-in bakery concept. It is a mixture of best French bakery products and also serves other food and beverages dishes - from starters to retail items. Baker Pascal Tepper is the brand owner; he is recognized by the French President for being one of the best bakers. And that's why the title 'Meilleur Ouvrier de France'.
We started with Dubai in 2011 with the dine-in bakery. It was a phenomenal success. It is based on quality, consistency, value-for-money and a mix of a nice story which baker Pascal has brought to the fore with the bakery. The idea was to bring the concept out to the world.
We started in the UAE; we have five outlets there. A Pascal Tepper outlet requires an area of 10 to 600 metre per square; it varies. From the food truck concept to a fully-fledged dine-in bakery - we are serving throughout the day from 7 am to midnight. We have catering, dining and takeaways at Pascal Tepper. In UAE, Pascal Tepper is quite successful. After approximately seven years, we think it's time to roll out the concept globally.
We are considering a lot of countries, but we are expanding with India first. It's the first time that Meilleur Ouvrier de France is coming to India with his own concept and restaurant.
The Indian market is quite big. India is changing a lot these days because of the travelling possibility Indian community has. The exposure through travels had made Indians more conscious, and, therefore, we see a lot of business coming up in the country's market.
The key is to find the right experienced partners in different parts of India, who are fulfilling our quality expectations.
I believe there is a big potential for our concept of different sizes in 5 to 7 key cities. The ambitious target is to have opened the first outlets in 2019 and have in total six outlets opened in 2020. A total number of 50 outlets in 10 years is our target.
A major challenge in India will be the high rents. When you want to position yourself as a top range, as a high-end dine-in bakery, you have to be in a best-possible location. And the best-possible location costs a lot of money.
We are here to make all the stakeholders, the staff and the guests happy. There should be a financial gain to the investors as well.
Our next challenge will be to maintain the quality and consistency in India. We want to produce maximum inside the country and not import the products.
India is always been very intriguing to me – its culture, history, scale and its "Gastronomie" with all the flavours and spices. Every time it is almost like arriving onto a new planet, and while India has always had a culinary influence on the world, its economic and cultural influence is growing. The country represents a large market with consumers who are curious about the world around them, and who are willing to try new concepts and cuisines. So it's a very promising time to be here. France is a very popular tourist and business destination for Indians so the French cuisine and savoir-faire is not a secret anymore to some Indians. It is time now to bring to India the "Best French Baker" recipes and produce the best possible French bread on site and develop an exciting F&B concept for the ever demanding and growing population.
We believe that India has a great potential for our Pascal Tepper French Bakery concept, because of the enormous market and the local production with the available ingredients. If we succeed in this amazing and exciting challenge to develop with our partners a successful Business Model and quality and consistent Food and Beverage outlet, we will be able to develop almost everywhere globally.
Ideally, we should have in every big city our Flagship bakery and restaurant outlet, 3 to 10 smaller bakeries, some Food Kiosks and a Production kitchen.
We could start as well with only the flagship bakery and restaurant where we will produce all our food items and specialities on site.
We want to position our concept as a casual dining Bakery and Restaurant. The Baker products should be the best in the city as we are carrying the best French baker title with us in the brand and the name Pascal Tepper stands for Quality and consistency. Pascal Tepper itself is one of the most "French-looking" bakers with his unique moustache and customer will recognize his face very soon. Our customers will be able to choose from Dine In, catering, delivery or take away and we want to communicate properly on the different ways of receiving Food or beverage items from Pascal Tepper French Bakery.
I think the most important for our brand is to bring the "Know how" of running successfully Food and Beverage outlets, bringing the recipes and savoir-faire of our Menus, the training techniques for the future staff, the brand and its Values to the destination. We will leave the money invested to the professionals and Indians who believe in our brand.
This article was originally published by Sara Khan.