Food and beverages retail firm Lite Bite Foods, which has formed a joint venture with international company HMSHost, plans to invest about ₹100 crore in the next three-four years.

The joint venture, which is named Lite Bite Foods HMSHost, will bid to acquire rights to launch and operate international and domestic food and beverage outlets at airports, railway station as well as highways in India, besides neighbouring countries.

While Lite Bite Foods is promoted by Amit Burman and Rohit Aggarwal, HMSHost is among the leading airport and highways food service companies. HMSHost will own 51 per cent in this joint venture, while Lite Bite Foods will own 49 per cent

HMSHost International CEO Walter Seib told BusinessLine , “We have been operating in India for the last few years and have been very happy with the financial performance. But we realised that we need to partner with a reputed local company to accelerate our growth and tap into the huge potential of travel retail in the country.”

Amit Burman, Chairman, Lite Bite Foods, said the new joint venture will have HMSHost’s international experience and Lite Bite Foods’ extensive local market and cuisine knowledge.

“With new opportunities opening up at airports, railways stations and highways, there is a huge potential in the travel retail space. We aim to clock about ₹500 crore in revenues in the next 4-5 years,” Burman added.

The partners also said they will actively pursue inorganic growth opportunities in a bid to accelerate growth, besides organic growth opportunities.

Seib said the company’s traditional markets are seeing slower growth in air travel compared to emerging markets such as India.

He said demographics like the growing Indian middle class indicate the strong growth potential India offers for travel retail.

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