Pinks, Pinks, fizz
The £1.2m refurbishment of Shimla Pinks in Birmingham is owner Moe Kohli's first step towards creating the first national chain of Indian restaurants. Janet Harmer reports.
Moe Kohli intends to fill what he perceives to be a massive gap in the marketplace by building a chain of Indian restaurants across the country. "The potential is huge for creating a chain - it is so strange that no one has done it before," he says. "Although there are one or two small groups, most Indian restaurants - like Italian restaurants 30 years ago - are still family-owned and operated."
This is surprising, he says, as the turnover of the Indian restaurant market in the UK, at £2.4b, makes it four times larger than the pizza market, which is worth only £600m. Yet there are at least three major chains in the pizza sector, and none among Indian restaurants. Kohli intends to change all that through the expansion of the Shimla Pinks restaurant group, which he bought out of administration in November 2000.
Although he will not disclose how much he paid for the company, which was operated by Concepts & Cuisine until it went into administration in May 2000, agent Christie & Co had placed the four-strong chain on the market for £1.5m. Kohli bought three of the restaurants (in Birmingham, Solihull and Nottingham) and changed his company name from Broomco 237 to Shimla Pinks Holdings. He turned down the option to buy the fourth restaurant, a three-storey site in Oxford, which he says was "a logistical nightmare to run". While the other restaurants were successful operations, Kohli says that the Oxford premises and a poorly run head office had helped to cripple the company.
There are currently six Shimla Pinks that come under the auspices of Kohli's operation, of which he is group chief executive. As well as the three company-owned restaurants, there are also three - in Leicester, Manchester, and at the Killermont Polo Club in Glasgow - which operate under franchise agreements. There are several other Shimla Pinks that are not part of the group operating in and around the Glasgow area, including the very first restaurant of that name, which opened in Johnstone in 1989. As Kohli expands his chain, he will decide whether or not to take action to ensure that he retains sole rights to the name.
The founder of the first Shimla Pinks, Kal Dhaliwal, is set to join Kohli as his company's operations director. Dhaliwal will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the business, while Kohli concentrates on the financial side and looks for new sites.
It was Dhaliwal's intention from the outset to create a group of Indian restaurants that were vibrant, fashionable and exciting - in essence, outlets that were a world away from the flock-wallpapered eateries of old. "The first restaurant was very revolutionary for Johnstone," he says. "It took people by surprise, but it worked."
Kohli's plans for Shimla Pinks closely mirror the vision of its founder. "I'm building up a chain which offers fine dining, a trendy and glamorous atmosphere and traditional food," he says. "I'm not interested in nouveau Indian food."
To help ensure the authenticity of the food, the recent £1.25m refurbishment of Shimla Pinks's flagship restaurant on Birmingham's busy Broad Street has included the introduction of an open kitchen, which incorporates equipment imported from India. The sigri charcoal grill is used for cooking kebabs, while ingredients are placed directly on the tawa hotplates and stir-fried with the aid of taktaks (utensils that make a "tak, tak" sound when used with the tawa).
Dishes on the new menu include tandoori jhinga (king prawns marinated in mace, cardamom, lemon juice, ginger and garlic and then cooked on the sigri, £7.95), lamb karahi (cubes of lamb cooked with ginger, garlic, onions, tomatoes, crushed coriander seeds and red chillies, £8.65), and kazana-e-lazat (a creamy cheese simmered in a sauce of tomatoes with garam masala and kasoori methi, £5.50/£6.95). Average spend is £25 per head, including drinks.
Consistency of food is controlled at all the restaurants through a central production kitchen, situated on the first floor above the Broad Street outlet. Here, group executive chef Rashpal Sunner oversees the making of all the sauces, which are vacuum-packed and transported to the other outlets twice a week.
The thriving 350-seat Birmingham Shimla Pinks, which opened in 1991, has played an important role in leading the rejuvenation of the city's restaurant scene. During the mid-1990s it became known as the in place for any celebrity visiting the city. And although Kohli admired its contemporary interior, regarded as cutting-edge in the early days, he felt that it had become tired. "Most restaurants have no more than a six- to seven-year life span, and it was time for this one to change," he says.
The result is a funky new interior designed by Art Environments of Birmingham. Wacky features abound, including a row of turban-clad mannequins that greet customers as they walk into the restaurant, plus revolving pink booths and space-age coloured lights. A private dining room operates as a nightclub at weekends. While lunch trade is minimal, as it is in many Indian restaurants, 400-500 covers can be served in the evening.
Although he has no previous experience of running restaurants, Kohli, 28, has been involved in buying and reviving run-down businesses as well as running an investment company and working for his father, multimillionaire Mohinder Kohli, whose Stonegalleon company imports and exports to and from China. The younger Kohli admits that he expects to sell on Shimla Pinks once it has achieved critical mass, but much work needs to be done before it reaches that stage.
This year, Kohli hopes to open at least two new Shimla Pinks - sites have already been found in Leeds and Brighton. These, along with all future sites, will be owned and managed by the company. "Location is very important to us - we rely on 50% booking and 50% passing trade, so we can't be tucked away anywhere," says Kohli. "We also need premises that are not less than 7,000sq ft, as we're looking to open restaurants with an average of 200 covers."
Cardiff and Newcastle will be next on the hit list, with the ultimate aim of opening a Shimla Pinks in every major city and town in the country and maybe as many as three in London.
Shimla Pinks
Shimla Pinks Holdings, 113 Tennant Street, Birmingham B15 1EY
Tel: 0121-633 0366
Number of restaurants: three company-owned in Birmingham, Solihull and Nottingham; three which operate under franchise, in Leicester, Manchester, and at the Killermont Polo Club in Glasgow
Chief executive: Moe Kohli
Operations director: Kal Dhaliwal
Executive chef: Rashpal Sunner
Indian chains
Although there are a handful of small groups of Indian restaurants in the UK, such as the eight-strong Aagrah chain in Yorkshire and the four-strong Caf‚ India chain in Scotland, a nationwide group has never been established.
Pat Chapman, founder of the Curry Club and editor of the Good Curry Guide, says several attempts have been made to establish chains across the country, but none has succeeded.
"I'm not too sure why they haven't taken off," he says, "but it is interesting that large chains in the other ethnic sectors haven't worked either. We have 8,500 Indian restaurants on our database, which is one for almost every village and town in the country, so you could say that the market is saturated, although some growth is still taking place."
