Building beyond beer: What makes BLR Brewing Co’s model so lucrative

BLR Brewing Co, the brewery chain under BLR Restaurants, is charting a new expansion strategy—by being present inside the city’s large tech parks with residential communities. “Our expansion is going to be in such a way that we’re looking at more convenience stores within the tech  parks and communities,” says Prasanna Kumar, Co-founder of BLR Restaurants. 

Recently, BLR Brewing Co opened its fifth outlet at the Prestige Tech Park in Bengaluru’s Bellandur locality, making it the city’s largest brewpub chain. 

Bengaluru, considered the beer capital of India, is not new to the concept of brewup chains. Players like Byg Brewski Brewing Company, Geist Brewing Co, Biere Library, Biergarten Brewery and Kitchen, the iconic Toit Brewpub and Windmills Craftworks ensure that the city’s beer drinkers never run out of options to choose from. But for techie-turned-brewmaster Kumar, BLR Restaurants doesn’t just want to make craft breweries accessible—he wants to democratise dining experiences. 

What really sets BLR Brewing Co’s business model apart is its multi-format expansion strategy and experience-first approach. “Customers are always always looking for something new here. There are always new places and brands coming up but I think we’re all selling the same product—finger food, beers and cocktails…So we really wanted to do something different,” Kumar tells YS Life.

Since launching its very first outlet in 2016, BLR has widened its offerings beyond just beer with a specialty coffee brand, Beanlore Coffee Roasters; an entertainment-focused cocktail-forward bar, Hamilton; and Hachi—a Japanese restaurant in partnership with Tokyo’s iconic F&B brand Tenya. 

When BLR launched BLR Brewing Co in Whitefield, it was not just India’s largest brewpub, but also featured the tallest waterfall and biggest bridge inside a brewery. “It was a unique selling point. There are a hundred places selling beer, cocktails and food. So when we had discussions with architects, we came up with a waterfall and bridges where people come out for taking pictures, this is something else apart from just four walls,” Kumar adds. 

Kumar has focused on experience-driven concepts for his new ventures as well. 

Hamilton—a 7,500 sq ft space and capacity of 250-people, is not just the largest cocktail bar in the city, but also offers live entertainment including jazz, rock and classical music performances. 

Hachi, on the other hand, is a first-of-its-kind experience where a Japanese brand has collaborated with a homegrown business to launch its famous tempura and ramen experience to the city.

Interestingly, this experience-focused approach has allowed BLR Brewing Co to achieve close to 40% of repeat customers. 

This year, Kumar is focusing on opening another BLR Brewing Co outlet in the Sarjapur locality, and a Beanlore outlet in Indiranagar. Rather than targeting the saturated and floating market of Central Bengaluru, Kumar is betting on the loyalty of the city’s suburbs and upcoming localities. 

“I don’t know how to manage a business in Central Bengaluru, and because of its floating crowd, I don’t know if this kind of loyalty (referring to the repeat customer rate) is available in that market…We have always focused on repeat customers rather than new customers,” he mentions, candidly.

This hyperlocal strategy is also aligned with BLR’s weekday business—BLR Brewing Co receives group bookings of up to 60-people on weekdays, and close to 25% of its revenue comes from events and corporate bookings. 

The average customer spends across its verticals are Rs 1,200 for BLR Brewing Co and Hachi, Rs 1,600 for Hamilton, and Rs 400 for its cafe, Beanlore. With eight outlets, the company managed to generate close to Rs 90 crore last year, and each outlet takes at least three months to break even. 

The largest BLR Brewing Co, in Whitefield, receives an average footfall of 2,000 people a day, while the smaller outlets—like the one in HSR Layout, gets around 500 diners a day, during the weekends. 

Looking ahead, Kumar reveals that BLR Restaurants will expand its Hachi outlet to other locations in the city, while Hamilton will continue to be a flagship in Whitefield. Expansion to other cities—Hyderabad and Pune—as also in the cards, although not this year. For BLR Restaurants, an IPO is also in the cards in the next three to four years.