Rahul Singh claims that when it comes to beer, you’ll never run out of excuses to grab one. For the founder one of the most awarded alco-beverage chains, The Beer Café, beer is life! His company’s outlets boast of the largest selection of beers available under one roof in India. It holds the distinction of being one of the first chains to organise the alco-beverage sector and this early mover advantage means that it has among the highest per square foot optimisation in the industry; in terms of return on investment, revenue and profit. In fiscal 2013-14, The Beer Café’s annual revenue stood at Rs. 15.97 crore and in the next fiscal (2014-15), it more than doubled to reach Rs. 38 crore. And Singh adds that his annual revenue is four times that of the capital employed by the company. Given the success the company’s had, thus far, investors have been more than willing to come on board. The Beer Café received its Series-A of Rs. 25 crore from Mayfield Fund in May 2013 and in December 2014, it received its Series-B of Rs. 30 crore from Granite Hill and existing investor, Mayfield Fund. Marico’s Harsh Mariwala is an angel investor in the company.
Singh hopes that in this fiscal, the company will add 16 more outlets to its current tally while pushing annual revenues closer to the Rs. 100 crore mark. In the next three years, he wants to make The Beer Café an internationally admired brand. To start with, the company is likely to make an entry in to Singapore and the entrepreneur wants to “take it from there”. Singh’s ambitions don’t rest there; in just under a decade from now he wants to see The Beer Café listed on one of the world’s major exchanges.
Benefiting its people: The Beer Café currently employs close to 500 people (As of Aug 2015) and maintains one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry. Singh attributes this to higher remuneration compared to industry standards, ownership of work and a work culture where everybody is a stakeholder (even the front line employees hold ESOPs)
Benefiting the environment: Majority of beer consumption at The Beer Cafe is in draught form, which saves the environment by not using bottles, packaging material and constant refrigeration needed for bottled beer.
