While the slowdown in demand for dine-in has prompted some QSR chains to opt for smaller outlets, Westlife FoodWorld will continue to open outlets of a standard size.
“Downsizing outlets by a few 100 square feet is not really going to save us anything,” CEO and President Akshay Jatia told FE. “It might limit our opportunity in terms of dine-in growth, which we feel is there for the taking,” he added.
He said McDonald’s is being positioned as a destination and that this strategy would give the company a competitive advantage.
Westlife operates McDonald’s outlets across western and southern India. The eateries typically occupy a space of 2,800 -3,200 square feet. This is larger than the 1,300-1,400 square feet outlets run by its nearest competitor Burger King. Moreover, Westlife’s drive-through stores are typically as big as 22,000 square feet.
“We are looking to further double down on our drive-through strategy because we view that as a competitive advantage,” Jatia said.
Under its Vision 2027, Westlife is aiming to open 580-630 outlets by 2027. Currently, it operates around 430 eateries and is confident of achieving the target, the CEO added. Westlife is working on improving digital experience in its stores by increasing the number of self-ordering machines. However, Jatia said that for India, manpower would always be required in the stores.
“In fact, today we need more manpower as we’re opening more restaurants, even at the lobby level or at the front counter level, because as Indians we like interaction,” he said. “We like people and we’ve never had a labour issue,” he added.
At a time when quick delivery has become popular with brands as well as platforms working to reduce delivery times to 10-15 minutes, Westlife said it would continue to focus on customer experience.
“We are not going to be the ones who play this game of trying to undercut in terms of time of delivery, because that just leads to the wrong behavior,” he said.