Bird Group plans to double the business across all verticals by 2030

New Delhi: Bird Group, the Delhi based conglomerate with interests in hospitality, aviation and flight services, education and auto retail, has entered into a lease agreement to develop a hotel in Shillong on a 12-acre land as it plans to double its business across all verticals by 2030, group Executive Director Gaurav Bhatia told ET.

The group's hospitality arm, Roseate Hotels & Resorts, which currently operates seven hotels across India and the UK, with about 600 keys of its own, will have close to 1,200 keys by 2030 as the group plans to start management contracts as well.

"Roseate will lean more on managing hotels owned by others, and managed properties will make up 15 to 20 per cent of its portfolio in three to four years. Internally, our target is that we need to reach 2,000 rooms for being "a reasonable player". We have already signed three management contracts and about 20 more are under discussion across India,” Bhatia said.


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The group is also building a separate brand pitched above budget and below luxury.

“We are creating a value for money plan, which is high on service and low on capex," Bhatia said.

Alongside the push into managed hotels, the group continues to build its own.

The Jewar hotel, near the Narendra Modi International Airport, is expected to open on April 1. It is being developed as a smart luxury hotel with 246 rooms.

Shillong is the next owned project, on about 12 acres of government land on a 70 year lease.

“We have just been awarded. Once the concession is signed, we will start the design. Northeast is something er are very bullish and will expand more,” Bhatia said.

In the UK, the group acquired Beechfield House last year, a 24 bedroom Grade II listed hotel in Wiltshire. Further overseas acquisitions are on hold for now. "The situation is volatile, so whatever we had, we paused."

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Hotel operations are also feeding a growing branded residences business. Roseate handles hospitality and facility management for M3M's luxury projects, including M3M Trump Towers in Gurugram and, more recently, M3M Jacob & Co Residences.

Bhatia said the group is cautious about taking on more. "We are very, very selective," he said, adding that further projects will come up outside NCR.

On the aviation side, the group's ground handling companies, led by Bird Flight Services and including GlobeGround India and Bird Airport Services, operate at 18 airports. The group also signed a ground handling concession at the Noida International Airport at Jewar.

Overseas, the group is looking at Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Uganda, Rwanda and Nigeria.

Away from aviation, Bhatia said the group's food and highway restaurant businesses will keep growing and are a main area of focus. He tied this to rising spending by the middle class.

“Our middle class will continue to grow. They will continue to spend money," he said.

Bird Foods, the group's food services arm, operates over 25 outlets across more than 10 cities, including Delhi NCR, Raipur, Lucknow, Dehradun, Jaipur and Mumbai, and targets 50 outlets by 2028. Its brands include The Indian Stories, Ka-Ching, Spice Nama, Freddo Bakehouse and Eat.co.

It entered Mumbai in March with The Indian Stories and Ka-Ching at Oberoi Garden City, its first presence in Maharashtra, and has since entered Jaipur.

The group is also investing in people for these businesses. Its training arm, Bird Academy, is concentrating on hospitality, with plans to widen into aviation and auto services. Annual throughput is about 3,000 students.

In auto, Bird Automotive, the group's auto retail arm, has 19 years in the business and is an authorised dealer for BMW, Mini, Porsche and Bentley. It has BMW and Mini sales and service in Delhi, Gurugram and Dehradun, and a Porsche Centre in Kolkata.

Bentley appointed the group as its exclusive partner in Delhi last December, and a showroom opened in the capital in June. Bhatia said the business now runs on professional lines.

The group has also refreshed its brand and redesigned its logo, the first such exercise in about 20 years, with a sharper focus on service.