KATHMANDU: KFC, Pizza Hut and Cream Bell have dug into the Nepali palate and the flurry of customers has made the venture a success.

Five months after its opening, the investors seem comfortable and confident these famous brand names have captured the Nepali fast food market “We are very happy with the response and can confidently say that the outlets here are at par with the best anywhere,” said Suranjan De, CEO of RJ Corporation Nepal. The outlets in the valley have had to increase their production capacity to almost thirty per cent, and are now well equipped to handle the influx of customers. “We have got great response and recently upped our production capacity so that we can cater to all,” added De.

Difficult labour relations caused the outlets to shut down for almost a month but they are now back on track and generating good response, “The indiscipline in the labour sector was a minor setback and we had to fire six persons. Now, we are back on track and unhindered,” said De.

The genre comprising young adults and forty-plus are frequent customers in these outlets while the food delights all palates. “Most of the customers are young adults but people in their forties and fifties are also part of that majority. It is not just non-vegetarian people who enjoy the food. We have a menu for vegetarians as well,” said De.

According to De, there has not been any complaint regarding the quality of food and business has been steady since inception in November. “We use the best of technologies and can assure you that the quality here is the very best. There has been no compromise on quality,” he said.

Cream Bell, the leading ice-cream brand in India has also got a warm response from Nepali consumers and is trotting ahead at a steady pace in the market. KFC, Pizza Hut and Cream Bell have hundreds of employees who are all Nepali and have been trained over a period of three months in India.

Despite the load-shedding problem, De says there is substantial

energy back-up and they can sustain as long as there is no diesel shortage in the country.