Various companies including international and domestic players are now making an entry into quick service restaurants – QSR – space. This has given rise to widening of the market due to increasing disposable income of the middle class, rapid urbanisation in the country and influence of western food among the young audience. As per Assocham ^[i], QSR sector in the country has been growing at a CAGR of 25 per cent and might touch a figure of USD 3.7 billion by the year 2020 from the current USD 1.3 billion.

Other reasons for expansion of the QSR space was because of higher growth seen in the nuclear family system, growing knowledge of international brands by Indian audience, availability of better logistics and availability of products on the Internet.

As per Assocham’s report, around 50 per cent of the population in India – mostly in the urban and semi-urban areas – eats out at least once in every three months. Of this, in the metros, people eat more than eight times from outside in comparison to the US – it is 14 times, in Brazil – it is 11 times, in Thailand – it is 10 times and in China – it is 9 times.

It is believed that with rising income, Indians might be looking at spending more and the competition in the space might get fiercer over a period of time. Foreign chains like Wendy’s, Burger King, Johnny Rockets and Carl’s Jr. are making it big in the country.

In terms of cities, larger part of QSR market come from the metros as well as mini metros because of high consumption, consumer awareness as most people tend to travel abroad.

With this, QSRs are able to grab their market share in the major cities and are now looking at expanding into smaller cities in various formats.

QSR format was able to take off in India 19 years ago with McDonald’s in the year 1996. Many other brands followed their footsteps, either by having company-owned stores or through the franchisee model, and in some cases, mixture of both.