Speciality Restaurants’ Anjan Chatterjee flags persistent operating hurdles despite dining growth
Founder Anjan Chatterjee traces Speciality Restaurants’ journey from Mumbai’s Only Fish in 1992 to a 118-unit restaurant and confectionery network, while highlighting rising organised-dining competition and enduring ease-of-doing-business constraints.
What happened
Speciality Restaurants founder Anjan Chatterjee discusses the company’s evolution from Mumbai’s Only Fish in 1992 into a pan-Indian 118-unit dining and
Key facts
- 1992
- 118 restaurants and confectioneries
Why this matters
The company’s established restaurant-and-confectionery network could be a useful partnership or acquisition platform, but any deal thesis should account for regulatory complexity and a crowded organised-dining landscape.
What to watch
- Net outlet additions, closures and mix of company-owned versus franchised locations.
- Same-store sales growth relative to dining-industry growth and food-delivery order trends.
- Restaurant-level EBITDA margin, employee costs, rental expense and raw-material cost as a percentage of sales.
- New organised chain openings in Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Delhi NCR and other core Speciality Restaurants markets.
- Evidence of discounting intensity on delivery platforms and changes in platform commissions.
- State or municipal changes to restaurant licensing, alcohol permissions, operating-hour rules, GST treatment or labour compliance.
- Management commentary on capex, debt, lease liabilities, expansion targets and brand rationalisation.
- Prioritise expansion through franchise, managed-outlet or other lower-capital formats rather than broad company-owned rollout.
- Rationalise the portfolio toward concepts with stronger unit economics, repeat traffic and delivery compatibility.
- Negotiate longer lease tenures, revenue-linked rentals and landlord contributions to limit occupancy-cost inflation.
- Increase centralised procurement, menu engineering and kitchen automation to protect gross margins against ingredient and labour volatility.
- Use loyalty data and cross-brand promotions to reduce dependence on third-party delivery discounts.
- Engage industry bodies on single-window licensing, standardised inspections and state-level restaurant compliance reform.