QSR start-up Wow Momo Foods may enter sauces, frozen momo space

Kolkata-based QSR start-up “Wow! Momo” is exploring the possibility of entering into sauces and the frozen momo space.

However, Wow Momo Foods Pvt Ltd can take a call on entering these segments only when the company’s new automated facility in the southern parts of the Kolkata become operational.

According to the company’s co-founder Sagar Daryani, it is exploring options of selling momo sauces separately – as a product – from its outlet counters. The other option is to go for frozen momo sales (like packaged chicken) which can cater to both export and domestic markets.

“We have seen good demand for the various sauces that we offer with our momos. We may explore the offerings as a separate segment. This apart, we are also looking at the possibility of exporting frozen (packaged) momos,” he added.

While the company can leverage its own outlets for the sauce sales, it will also explore tie-ups with modern trade partners.

Meanwhile, Wow Momo is already in talks to raise funds to the tune of ₹50 crore. These would be used mostly to scale up operations.

“We are in talks. By end of March 2017 or a little later, we should have raised the money,” said Binod Kumar Homagai, Co-Founder and COO.

The company currently has 104 outlets across eight cities – Kolkata, Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Pune.

The next phase of expansion will see the company add 100 more outlets – over a one year period – in tier-II cities like Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Patna and also expand presence in the existing eight.

This apart, it will also explore other formats at airports, rail stations like Howrah and Sealdah, metro rail stations and so on. So far, it has two outlets at the Kolkata airport and is exploring a similar format for Chennai and Delhi terminals. The outlets at Kolkata metro rail stations have also been a success.

Interestingly, all of its 104-odd existing stores are breaking even at a store level, the company’s third co-founder and CFOO, Shah Miftaur Rahman claimed.

“At a store level all our stores are breaking even. And at a corporate level just three stores are yet to break even,” he pointed out. The company has already seen its nine month revenue (till December 2016) grow to ₹38 crore. For FY-16, its revenue was ₹31 crore. “We hope to end this fiscal with a revenue of ₹51 crore,” Rahman maintained.

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