It's desilicious! |
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| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1934 |
| Founder(s) | Nirula Brothers |
| Headquarters | Delhi, India |
| Number of locations | 85 |
| Area served | North India (focus-NCR Delhi) |
| Key people | Samir Kuckreja (MD) |
| Products | fast food, Indian cuisine, ice cream, pastry |
| Services | hotels, restaurants |
| Owner(s) | Nirula's Corner House Private Limited Navis Capital Partners |
| Website | Nirula's Official website |
Nirula's is India's oldest fast food restaurant chain[1][2], based in North India and most popular in NCR Delhi. It started Delhi's first fast food restaurant in Connaught Place in 1977, today it has over 75 outlets in NCR Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh states, which includes family-style restaurants "Nirula's" specializing in "Desi version" of western fast food as well as offering Indian cuisine, casual dining "Potpourri restaurants", Pastry Shops and Ice cream parlours, and two hotels in Noida and Panipat[3][4].
Nirula's Corner House Private Limited was acquired in June 2006, by Malaysia-based private equity fund, Navis Capital Partners with its Managing Director, Samir Kuckreja.
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The chain traces its origins to the "Hotel India" opened at L-Block Connaught Place, New Delhi (CP) in 1934, by "Nirula Brothers", LC Nirula and M Nirula, it had 12 rooms, a restaurant and a bar. [5] In the 1950s, they started a 'Chinese Room' Restaurant, Delhi's oldest Chinese restaurant at the premises. In 1940, it started running the Indian Coffee House for Indian Coffee Board at Janpath introducing espresso coffee, which became an instant success. Soon it launched two speciality restaurants- La Boheme serving Hungarian food; and Gufa, an Indian restaurant[1][6].
The 70s saw the Nirula's venture into the fast food business with the opening of Delhi's first fast food restaurant in 1977 here, to which was later added a Pastry Shop, Snack Bar, Hot Shoppe and an Ice Cream Parlour. A subsequently addition was the waiter-served first "The Potpourri" restaurant also adjacent, by the time it had become a CP landmark, offering people western fast food like burgers, pizzas and foot longs, plus an ice cream parlour with 21 flavours.[7].
The coming two decades saw the company starting a Central Kitchen and Family-style restaurants at Vasant Vihar, Chanakya cinema complex, Chanakyapuri, Defence Colony, Noida and various other locations in the NCR[8]. And before the arrival of several MNC restaurant chains in 1990s, Nirula's remained a major draw for young people in the capital. In the subsequently years even though MNC chains like McDonald's made inroads into its share, in 2000 it retained 40 per cent of the Delhi market[9][10]. Even then, facing stiff competition from Nirula's McDonald's had to "Indianise" it menu to suit Indian palate, while on its end Nirula's added competitive pricing and sprucing up its interiors[3][4][11][12].
The group subsequently diversified into business hotels opening one at Noida and another at Panipat, and set up food processing plants in Okhla and Noida, near Delhi.
Nirulas was also the first western style fast food restaurant in Kathmandu, Nepal. It had two outlets. A small one in New Road and the main large one in Durbar Marg, where currently is a KFC and a Pizza Hut on top. The popularity of Nirula's was their pizzas and ice cream. While both were already available in Kathmandu, they were offered at premium restaurants as gourmet versions and not as fast food. Nirula's started getting competition in the 1990s from local and international fast food outlets and by 1995 there was only one Nirula's left in the city. The quality also went down and it soon shut business for good. While Kathmandu is overcrowded with fast food outlets, many still reminiscence about Nirula's as the store that they first had pizza in. The most popular pizza was their Salami pizza, also their cheapest meat pizza.
Nirula's Corner House Private Limited continued to be owned by cousins Deepak and Lalit Nirula, till 2006 when it saw 100% acquisition by Samir Kukreja, Lalit's nephew and the $1 billion Malaysia-based Navis Capital Partners.
In 2007, its original outlet at CP, moved to K-Block, Connaught Place, while the adjacent "Potpourri restaurant" also moved to N block, Outer Circle also in CP[6][10]. Also in 2007, Nirula's opened India first ice cream museum situated at its Ice cream factory in Noida[2][13]. In the same year, the chain introduced three new outlet formats, including "Nirula's Express", Food Court Unit and Ice-Cream Kiosks, and the first Express outlet opened at the Delhi Airport[14].
Today it has outlets in across North India, in places like Panipat, Dehradun, Jaipur, Meerut and Pathankot[8][15].