Leading American pizza restaurant chain Domino's plans to double its store count to 4,000 in India in the next 5-6 years, a top company official said.

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Domino's, which started operations here in 1996, has launched its 2,000th store.

"It's the first time that a country outside of the US has reached over 2,000 stores," Domino's EVP, International Art D'Elia told PTI.

India is now the second biggest market for Domino's after the US in terms of number of operational stores and among top five globally in terms of revenue, he added.

The Indian market has a "huge growth opportunity" for Domino's, helped by a growing economy and the middle class. With its democratised offering, Domino's has made pizza accessible to more and more people in India.

"So we expect India to continue to be one of the fastest growing markets in the world. It's a top five market today, and we expect it will continue to climb up the ranks in the size markets that we have outside of the US," he said.

In India, Domino's stores are operated by Jubilant FoodWorks Ltd (JFL), which has a master franchisee for the brand here. Besides, the Bhartia family- promoted Rs 5,654 crore firm has licences for five other markets - Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

JFL will add around 180-200 stores this fiscal and has lined up a capex of Rs 250 crore for FY25, a majority of which will be spent on expansion of the pizza business, said its CEO and MD Sameer Khetarpal.

"I think what happened in the US market in QSR, in the early 1970s and China beyond 2007-2008, I expect the same thing to happen in India," he said.

Asked about the number of stores, Khetarpal said:"We are going to reach 4,000 stores in the next 5 to 6 years." JFL, which operates Domino's stores in 421 cities, serves over 200 million pizzas annually.

Over the demand, he said post-Covid, it had slowed due to inflation, but it has again revived after the softening of key commodity prices.

According to Khetarpal, he is "cautiously optimistic" for the growth but also raised concerns of rising wheat and milk prices, which are key ingredients of the pizza business.

The Jubilant Bhartia Group also has franchise rights for US-based Fried Chicken brand Popeyes, Dunkin', and Hong's Kitchen! As of March 31, 2024, JFL was operating 2,793 stores globally.
Asked about expansion in other markets, Khetarpal said:" This fiscal year, we will focus on our six existing markets only." In the domestic market, JFL would have a balanced approach by expanding into the existing big markets and also entering into new small tier III & IV places.