Pizza Corner

Franchise News India,Franchise In India,BANGALORE: Erstwhile Ispat Industries scion Atulya Mittal, who runs Papa John’s Pizza in India, is in talks to buy Pizza Corner, the country’s first fast food pizza chain owned by Bangkok-based billionaire Fred Mouawad, said people directly aware of the matter.

Pizza Corner set up shop in India in 1996 and is part of Mouawad’s Global Franchise Architects (GFA), which owns and operates other fast food brands in the country such as Donut Baker, Cream and Fudge, and Coffee World.

The discussions between Atulya — son of Vinod Mittal, who sold Ispat to JSW three years ago — and GFA were at an advanced stage. The deal may be structured as a merger of the Pizza Corner operations with Papa John’s through a combination of cash payout and share swap, leaving Mouawad with an attractive monetizing plan.

At present, US-based Papa John’s operates around 20 outlets across the country, while Pizza Corner operated 70 outlets across the four southern states. Around 75% of Pizza Corner outlets were company owned, while the remaining were being operated under the franchise route.

Repeated text messages, emails and calls to Joseph Cherian, CEO, GFA Global, and Mittal’s office over the past few days did not elicit any response.

This could be a consolidation move in the domestic quick service restaurant (QSR) sector, giving Mittal a sizeable network in the south. It is likely that Mittal may be rebranding many of the Pizza Corner outlets as Papa John’s, but this could not be confirmed independently.

The Mittal family last year acquired Om Pizzas and Eats, a master franchisor of Papa John’s in India, from TVS Capital, which continues to hold a minority stake.



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