The man who bought Shimla Pinks out of administration is planning a second attempt to create a nationwide branded chain of Indian restaurants.
Moe Kholi, who changed the name of his own company to Shimla Pinks Holdings after he acquired three of the original set-up's restaurants in November 2000, says his ultimate aim is to have a Shimla Pinks in every major city and town in the country, with at least three in London.
The company already controls six restaurants operating under the Shimla Pinks name, three company-owned, in Birmingham (which has just had a £1.25m refit), Solihull and Nottingham, and three run as franchises, in Leicester, Manchester and the Killermount Polo Club in Glasgow.
Any new openings will be entirely company-owned and managed, Kholi says. Sites for two more restaurants due to open this year have been found in Leeds and Brighton, and Kholi and his team are actively searching for suitable premises. He said: "We need premises that are not less than 7,000 sq ft, as we're looking to open restaurants with an average of 200 covers.
"Location is very important to us: we rely on 50% booked and 50% passing trade, so we can't be tucked away anywhere."
Kholi, whose father is the multi-millionaire owner of an import-export company, says the food at his version of Shimla Pinks will be traditional Indian, presented in a "fine dining" way with "a trendy and glamorous atmosphere". He says he thinks it "strange" that no one else has ever created a country-wide Indian restaurant chain on the lines of PizzaExpress, when the £2.4bn Indian restaurant market is four times larger than the pizza market: "the potential is huge."
One man who can tell him some of the pitfalls is Kal Dhaliwal, founder of the first Shimla Pinks, and also founder of Yellow River Cafes, now owned by Noble House. The company running Shimla Pinks, Concepts & Cuisine, which first planned to turn the name into a nationwide chain, collapsed in 2000 after millions of pounds of losses. Dhaliwal is now due to join Kholi as his operations director, in charge of day-to-day running, while Kholi concentrates on finance and new site acquisition.
A central production kitchen in Broad Street, Birmingham, above the company's flagship restaurant, produces all the sauces, which are vacuum-packed and transported to the chain's other outlets twice a week.
One problem Kholi has is that since the collapse of the original company, there are several Shimla Pink restaurants in and around Glasgow that are not controlled by his organisation. At some time he will have to decide whether to try to secure sole rights to the name.
Moe Kholi, who changed the name of his own company to Shimla Pinks Holdings after he acquired three of the original set-up's restaurants in November 2000, says his ultimate aim is to have a Shimla Pinks in every major city and town in the country, with at least three in London.
The company already controls six restaurants operating under the Shimla Pinks name, three company-owned, in Birmingham (which has just had a £1.25m refit), Solihull and Nottingham, and three run as franchises, in Leicester, Manchester and the Killermount Polo Club in Glasgow.
Any new openings will be entirely company-owned and managed, Kholi says. Sites for two more restaurants due to open this year have been found in Leeds and Brighton, and Kholi and his team are actively searching for suitable premises. He said: "We need premises that are not less than 7,000 sq ft, as we're looking to open restaurants with an average of 200 covers.
"Location is very important to us: we rely on 50% booked and 50% passing trade, so we can't be tucked away anywhere."
Kholi, whose father is the multi-millionaire owner of an import-export company, says the food at his version of Shimla Pinks will be traditional Indian, presented in a "fine dining" way with "a trendy and glamorous atmosphere". He says he thinks it "strange" that no one else has ever created a country-wide Indian restaurant chain on the lines of PizzaExpress, when the £2.4bn Indian restaurant market is four times larger than the pizza market: "the potential is huge."
One man who can tell him some of the pitfalls is Kal Dhaliwal, founder of the first Shimla Pinks, and also founder of Yellow River Cafes, now owned by Noble House. The company running Shimla Pinks, Concepts & Cuisine, which first planned to turn the name into a nationwide chain, collapsed in 2000 after millions of pounds of losses. Dhaliwal is now due to join Kholi as his operations director, in charge of day-to-day running, while Kholi concentrates on finance and new site acquisition.
A central production kitchen in Broad Street, Birmingham, above the company's flagship restaurant, produces all the sauces, which are vacuum-packed and transported to the chain's other outlets twice a week.
One problem Kholi has is that since the collapse of the original company, there are several Shimla Pink restaurants in and around Glasgow that are not controlled by his organisation. At some time he will have to decide whether to try to secure sole rights to the name.
