India’s leading multiplex chain, PVR Inox, will enter the food and beverage sector as it is planning to open its first food court in December this year. The company has confirmed a tie-up with Devyani International, a firm that runs brands like KFC and Pizza Hut. PVR Inox has filed its venture with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
The company said in its Q2 FY25 quarterly financial report that it had formed a new company, “Devyani PVR Inox Private Limited,” incorporated on July 26, 2024. The new entity will operate food courts within shopping malls located across India. Gaurav Sharma, officer, PVR Inox: Three to four food courts are planned by the company for the current financial year, and eight to ten are planned for the subsequent financial year.
Sharma also added that the whole food and beverage revenue of PVR Inox is mainly built from the post-ticket sales of the cinemas. The joint venture with Devyani is about taking the company outside the cinema halls; it is looking to offer the option of dining outside this space for the customer. “There is no branded food court chain in the country, and our effort is to offer a branded food court experience,” he said. He also emphasized that the food court business will be run as an independent entity from the in-cinema food and beverage revenue. “The objective of this is to take our F&B operations beyond the cinema space,” he added.
PVR Inox has made strenuous efforts through various means to enhance its food and beverage business. Some of these steps include the launch of its gourmet popcorn brand, 4700 BC, on all online platforms, and an association with Zomato for food delivery in the cinema halls. According to Sharma, despite these efforts, online food delivery contributes less than 1 percent to its F&B sales as of now. PVR Inox is currently in talks with other players in the online delivery business to boost its revenue through digital channels, in addition to Swiggy.
Gautam Dutta, co-chief executive of PVR Inox, said that better food sales online need to be improved. He said that such partnerships with delivery services, including Zomato, prove a logistical nightmare, as cinemas are normally located on really high floors, thereby prolonging food reach. Dutta said that home delivery has gone very well in southern India, where the cinemas can take the food down to the box office for quick pick-up.
Despite such efforts to broaden the food and beverage sector, PVR Inox announced its third consecutive quarter sequentially. With the Bollywood film line-up being hardly impressive with only a few big hits, which could not translate into box-office magic, besides the rising preference for online media houses that have resulted in people not visiting theatres, the loss is rather more multi-dimensional. Both box office collections and food and beverages have suffered due to this factor.
The company, formed from the merger of PVR and Inox, had a consolidated net loss of ₹11.8 crore in the quarter ended September 30, compared with a net profit of ₹166 crore during the same quarter last year.
