The Idli, Orchid and China

byShruti Chakraborty

India’s version of Chinese food may come with all the modifications of Indian food on every street corner and in fine dining restaurants, but hotelier Vithal Kamat will be selling authentic south Indian idlis in China soon.

Kamat will be taking his peninsular Indian cuisine restaurant Vindhyas to China in the next six months, he told_Entrepreneur_recently. Currently there is one Vindhyas restaurant in the Kamat-owned Orchid hotel in Mumbai.

[caption id=“attachment_335889” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“The Vindhyas chain of restaurants will open shop in China.”]  [/caption]

He added that the entrepreneurs they are partnering with in China want to set up a chain of Vindhyas restaurants in that country. However, there is only a concrete plan on the first one so far.

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Kamat, who bounced back from a Rs. 200 crore debt burden also has a chain of south Indian restaurants in the country, the Vithal Kamats. Under his company Kamat Hotels India Ltd. he also has the heritage hotel Fort Jadhavgarh Hotel, the Lotus Resorts chain amongst other hospitality businesses.

Kamat said that the company is not looking to undertake any major capital expenditure and will shift its focus almost entirely to the management of hotels. He said that he is also open to diluting equity in the company to bring on a partner, and focus only on the management of some of the hotels they currently own.

The Orchid hotel, one of the brands under Kamat Hotels (India) Ltd. is also likely to be taken abroad eventually, Kamat said. “There are a few inquiries from South Africa and the Middle East, and there was some work done earlier on setting up a hotel in Johannesburg but that is currently on hold and there is no clear plan on when that will be completed.”

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Kamat, however, isn’t perturbed by that. He seems excited about his rapidly growing business and shares his key learnings for other entrepreneurs to benefit from rather large-heartedly. He shared with entrepreneurs recently the ‘gap-map-tap’ formula of beginning and building a successful venture. He advises aspiring entrepreneurs to spot a gap in the market, map the market and then go in and tap that market. Going by his latest China plan, Kamat may have mapped the Chinese market and measured the demand for idlis well.

(The writer works for Entrepreneur magazine. For more on the business of restaurants read the June 2012 issue of Entrepreneur. Now on stands.)