NYK (New York Knight) is a combination brand of Italian and American foods. NYK is a concept started a year back with the objective of providing a unique experience to the customer through menu/product, services and ambience. In an interaction, Maneesh Singh, Director, NYK food & beverage shares brand’s India expansion plans.
How and when you have came up with a plan to open your own food brand?
Ever since I was studding I wanted to have my own business but in food industry, later on while I was experiencing the different industries by travelling across many countries I have found one thing common in all countries, city, town, people etc. and that is ‘They all wanted to have good food while working or handling their business or work. So I have decided to choose the industry where I want to serve the people with hospitality. Cooking was my hobby so we researched this industry and introduced the quality which is benchmark for our success. And by opening our first outlet our passionate journey continued to start exploring new Ideas and new place for expansion.
What inspired you to take a franchise root?
People inspired us to come into this franchising. When we introduced our self by having presence in one place it is people who enjoyed our food and start liking it, they approached us for franchise or many customers were there who suggested us to have a presence in other location as our quality was the prime factor. So we start franchising us. And journey was not easy but we explored the industry and as of now we are having our presence in different cities.
What difficulties you have been faced at the time of start up?
When we talk about start up there are several factor that we have to manage firstly our time because it is the industry which demands continuous devotion of time to learn and explore this vast industry where everyone will like your way if they will get value for their money.
Secondly comes our financial management, people management, supply management, quality management etc. All these factors should be managed simultaneously to get the prime goal that is success.
There are so many brands in Food & Beverages industry at this time with almost same concept; How “New York Knight” (NYK) is different?
There are many things which Entrepreneurs will find in our business model-
- Affordable setup cost- NYK gives the opportunity of starting franchise model at the minimum set up cost to the entrepreneurs because for an entrepreneur who wants take start in business finance is the first step which allows them even to think about business. As NYK is the Italian & American food cuisine and having a huge menu for an outlet. And for this kind of brand it is very difficult to come up with franchise model at affordable project cost. NYK is having a franchise model starting from 5L to 12 L (Kiosk to Fine Dine).
- Manpower Support- When we talk about franchise model then the first problem comes in the mind of franchisee to arrange manpower for his outlet that should not leave him in between. So here NYK provides manpower support to its franchisee in order to serve them better.
- Marketing Supports- We have our paid marketing support program to support our franchisee.
- Zero Royalty- NYK does not take any royalty or service fee from its franchisee till our 5 Years of tenure.
Other then this franchisee will have 24*7 continuous supports from brand end.
We have found “Biryani” in NYK menu, how you are mixing this food with Italian and American food?
Biryani is something which is optional for the franchisee. It does not belong to our Italian & American food and has been introduced later on. It is the time when we were about to open our unit franchise in Chhattisgarh then after researched the Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh area Biryani was the most demanded product then we offered our franchisee to start Biryani in his NYK franchise outlet with following our quality standard.
How many franchise locations do you have at present? What are your future expansion plans?
NYK is having 5 outlets in India in multi cities & many are in pipeline and will open in the next quarter as we plan to open 20 outlets in India through 2015.
In the passionate journey with food we are now planning to reach in India’s every city with our business plan for our country’s entrepreneurs. We are planning to set up our 8 centralized distribution point in metro & small city for our supply. Master Franchise, Multi- unit franchise & single unit Franchise models are available for our new and young entrepreneurs to take and start exploring their journey in the food industry with us.
In our franchise initiative we are targeting all small & metro cities and planning to open 20 outlets by 2015 and next 25 outlets in 2016. And for this we are inviting application for master, multi- unit and single unit franchise model.
What are the qualities and qualifications that you seek for in your franchisees? How much investment is required by aspiring franchisees?
As a quality or qualification we do not ask for such standard benchmark of quality for becoming our franchisee. We have our own training program for our franchisee from which he/she has to undergo to be a successful food & beverage entrepreneurs.
As an investment plan we have our following plan to invest-
- Single Unit Franchise Model-
| Franchise Model | Area Required | Investment/Project Cost | Area Preference |
| Mini-Kiosk | 250-300 Sq. ft | 5L | High Street, Shopping Mall. |
| Kiosk | 250-350 Sq. ft | 8L | High Street, Shopping Mall. |
| Express | 600-1000 Sq. ft | 9.5L | High Street, Shopping Mall, Independent commercial, Shopping complex, High way |
| Fine- Dine | 1000-1500 Sq. ft. | 12L | High Street, Shopping Mall, Independent commercial, Shopping complex. |
- Multi- unit franchise Model-
There will be 5 single units will have to be taken and exclusive rights will be given.
- Master franchise Model-
This model will be based on territory/State.
What kind of training and support do you lend to your franchisees?
Training will be held in the franchise location and will be covering following areas-
- Operational Training,
- Management Training,
- Marketing and Manpower management training,
Supports will be given to the franchisee in the following ways-
- Manpower Hiring & appointment for franchise location,
- Proven model and raw material supply,
- Site visit, site selection and development assistance,
- Operational and management support,
- Paid advertising and marketing programs,
- Manpower Training and development,
- New product development,
- Pre-opening market analysis provided to the franchisees,
- Complete assistance in franchise development and design.
Any message for the upcoming Entrepreneurs.
Food & Beverage industry is one of the fastest growing sector where an entrepreneur can get there profitability faster than counterpart industry. As a franchising brand, we understand you and your investment desires, and hence offer you customized & specific franchise brand suiting to your investment appetite. It gives us an immense pleasure to introduce an exciting brand in the F&B industry with robust business model that’ll help you to gain higher Return on Investment and faster break-even.
Franchise is a vast industry and gives to a remarkable push in experiencing a business. We will advise you to choose a right brand for you as many things will be depending on this.