TIFFINBITES LAUNCHES IN THE UK
(28th January 2003)

The first ever Indian fast food brand will hit the UK high street with the launch of the 'Tiffinbites' store at 88 Wardour Street in London today. Indian cuisine is well established as Britain's most popular meal, but the fast food concept with dishes like bhel poori, bateta wada and idli have only been popular amongst Asians. Tiffinbites attempts to be a revolution in Indian eating, offering a fast food Indian brand that guarantees purity of ingredients and home-cooked appeal in a Tiffin!

There are over 100 items on the Tiffinbites menu, including the Tiffin box. The traditional Indian Tiffin box provides three stainless steel round containers that slot into each other offering a complete and satisfying meal.

The brainchild of two ex-M&S buyers, Jamal Hirani and Jonathan Marks, Tiffinbites plan to open over 52 stores within five years, operating in every major UK city. The two young British entrepreneurs trained and worked together at Marks & Spencer for six years as buyers for women's lingerie. They bring to Tiffinbites the combined hallmarks of customer service, quality control, innovation and marketing know-how. Their aim being to launch a new and exciting fast food proposition with a wide range of exciting recipes that would inspire the jaded appetites of the traditional sandwich-eater.

"For many of our customers, Tiffinbites will be the first time that they have experienced authentic, premium quality Indian food. Our commitment to excellence is demonstrated by the fact that every store will feature a traditional tandoori oven. We are flying in a specialist Indian chef to make delicious freshly baked naan bread, on the premises, daily." Jamal Hirani explained.

Tiffinbites will offer ten different styles of tiffin boxes, twelve wraps and a wide variety of salads, street foods, Indian sweets, muffins, biscuits, cakes, salads, fruit, yoghurts, tea, coffee, juices and smoothies.

The Wardour Street outlet will be shortly followed by another located in The Strand with a £6 million rollout throughout the country within the next 2 to 5 years. The entrepreneurs will be banking on the fact that fast food purchases are rarely discretionary even in the most challenging economic environment adding to a market worth some £7.48 billion pounds in 2001. Growing at about 3% per annum, only 13% of this market is made of up ethnic foods. Hirani & Marks believe that by bringing the popular "tiffin wallah" service concept from India to Britain, they can convince new purchasers into considering an Indian meal for lunch.

Click here to visit the Tiffinbites website.

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