Wai Wai to be served in noodle bars

While small eating joints offering variants of Maggi is not a rare sight in the country, rival company CG Corp Global, the makers of Wai Wai, is set to take the competition head on.

CG Corp Global is extending brand Wai Wai to the Quick Service Restaurant segment and plans to set up noodle bars across the country. The restaurant chain, which has been branded as Wai Wai City, will serve a menu largely inspired by the instant-noodle brand.

Varun Choudhary, Executive Director, CG Corp Global said, “This is a brand extension of our instant noodle brand Wai Wai and also marks our foray in the Quick Service Restaurant business. It’s our attempt to bring brand Wai Wai closer to our consumers in a more tangible format. The biggest strength of Wai Wai is its taste and we will be leveraging on it to offer different dishes and flavours to our consumers.”

While the first Wai Wai City outlet is set to open this week at Hauz Khas Village in New Delhi, CG Corp wants to take this QSR chain across the country and even to international destinations.

CG Corp Global has been ramping up its manufacturing capacity for Wai Wai in India, besides investing in an aggressive pan-India branding campaign. Wai Wai Noodles claims to have a share of about 27 per cent in the instant noodles segment which is pegged at about ₹2,500-3,000 crore.

Since Wai Wai is a brown noodle product, the company believes it will give it enough room for experimentation and enable it to offer a variety of dishes on its menu such as classic, crunchy, roasted and pan fried noodle dishes.

“We will have various formats under Wai Wai City which includes standalone restaurants, dispensing counters and kiosks at convenience stores. In the first phase, we will focus on establishing a chain of standalone QSR restaurants in the country. With this, we want to take brand Wai Wai to the next level,” Chaudhary said.

Wai Wai City restaurants will have an open kitchen, free WiFi and offer products at affordable prices, with a meal starting at a price point of as low as ₹129.

The concept has been developed in collaboration with food advisory firm Secret Ingredient.

The company will be taking the franchise route to expand the chain to about 50 outlets in the first phase.

“We will open these outlets not only in the key metros but also B and C class towns, including the North-East market,” he said.

However, the company did not give the financial investments that will be put in the QSR venture.

“We also want to take this QSR chain to other countries such as the US, the UK and Europe. We may look at dispensing counters and other such formats for international expansion,” he said.

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