For Antoine Bakhache, the founder of Indian quick service restaurant chain Pizza Corner and managing partner of the $10-million Wilsa India Ltd, business means anything that gives him his daily ROTI (return on time invested).
So it's in perfect keeping with his calling that he will next week manufacture tortillas, that will pop out of his 10,000-piece a day oven in Delhi.
But the shrewd Lebanese-born, India-based entrepreneur, who has the pizzazz to oversee half a dozen parallel businesses at the same time can only be present at one place at a time; even then, he scouts for new investment partners for Pizza Corner's expansion foray as he's thinking up his next retail venture in hand tools.
His current concerns range from pizzas to a bread venture to a low-priced Chinese food joint to a leather goods concern. He dabbles in corporate gifts exports and even trades in shark fins, lingerie to T-shirts from Switzerland to Singapore. Bakhache currently runs his business empire, Wilsa Worldwide, headquatered in Singapore with 50 per cent ownership with John Nasr.
And out of the chaos of business operations, he has secured order by following one elementary business philosophy. "I get into a 50 per cent ownership with all my business partners," explains Bakhache.
For his one-year-old bread company Golden Crust, he entered into a joint partnership with ex-ITC Hotels' F&B manager, Arjun Khanna, to produce speciality breads such as tortillas, bagels and pittas. They currently supply to institutions like Delhi's Maurya Sheraton and The Ashok hotels.
For its low-priced Chinese food venture, Noodle King in Chennai, he has tied up with Arun Das, a local entrepreneur. Likewise Anoop Sequeira was chosen to take reins of Pizza Corner. Currently, Noodle King has three outlets in Chennai.
Bakhache, who jointly handles his trading and corporate gift operations with Nasr, also organises private exhibitions for the $600-million, Geneva-based jewellery house Mouawad in South-east Asia. "Business is all about relationship. From jewels, I can build contacts to promote my Wilsa corporate gifts," he says, who was earlier the regional marketing director for Mouwad in South-east Asia. Wilsa's corporate clients include Shell Malaysia, Citibank, Stanchart Bank and Shangrila and Regent hotels.
Regarding his bread venture where he's invested Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million), he says, "We'd like to bring breads from all over the world. And our USP is that unlike Indian rotis which become dry within six hours, our products remain fresh for a longer time." At Rs 35 for 6 pieces of Lebanese bread, the company is targeting the upper middle class clientele. Golden Crust also makes the pizza crust for Pizza Corner.
Currently, Bakhache holds 10 per cent stake in Pizza Corner. From designing the logo and menu to inventing adverts like "Others give you pizza, we give you the real pitza", he led a campaign to educate the public about the product right from the way the word is pronounced.
"I figured that pizzas are the closest to Indian product as India's staple are roti and milk products," says Bakhache, who last year shifted base to Delhi to oversee the chain's expansion plans in north India. Pizza Corner is jointly owned by venture capitalist conglomerate Global Retail Investors and TC West through ICICI Venture.
"I diluted my stake in Pizza Corner as I needed the time to invest in my own projects," says Bakhash, who arrived in the country back in 1996 when some investors with a corpus of $300,000 wanted to put money in real estate. That plan didn't fructify. Instead Pizza Corner was born.
He would, of course, like to get into more businesses, time permitting. Currently, he's also helping his wife Sabah to launch a health food chain, Hot and Juicy through the franchisee mode. "I divide my time by the day and give my time where required. It's pure business," he says with a note of finality.
