Food courts in India, the revenue numbers

Most of have visited the food courts in malls (in India). Over the last 7-8 years malls have become the favorite destination of ours as it has food & movies (for men) and shopping (for women!). Malls are able to attract crowds because of movie theaters and it these crowds which get into food courts.

Food courts too don’t do that well unless the mall has theaters. Food courts in India are crowded, as they say a restaurant in India can do bad only if the food sucks, else we have sufficient population to make a restaurant profitable (I am talking about restaurants for common man, with affordable prices).

BusinessWorld (Feb 7, 2011) carried an article about the numbers behind food courts in India,

• Food courts generate 10-15% of a mall’s revenues, on a minimum guarantee plus revenue-share model.
• A food court usually shares about 28% of its net sales with the mall.
• A 300 sq ft restaurant will cost about Rs 50 lakh to set up, of which 45% is the deposit to the mall.
• 8-10% of the total mall area is set aside for a food court.
• Malls give advisory to food court outlets on menu, price points (you don’t see two outlets with same kind of food being served)
• Mantri Mall, Bangalore: Price of an average bit is Rs 150 (Rs 400 on weekends), 16,000 meals a day, which translates to Rs 8 crore a month (the entire food court in a mall)
• 2018: India will have 400 malls, a $3 billion business. Currently (2010), it is Rs 2000 crore