Los Angeles, Aug. 6 - California Pizza Kitchen, Inc. announced an agreement today with new franchise partners JSM Corporation Pvt. Ltd. (JSM) and Daud Arabian Trading to expand into India.
As part of the agreement, a minimum of fifteen new California Pizza Kitchen full-service restaurants are expected to open in India over the next ten years with the first restaurant scheduled to open in the summer of 2010.
“We are thrilled to be expanding our CPK brand into India, a country with a growing consumer economy and that represents one of the world’s largest emerging markets,” stated Rick Rosenfield and Larry Flax, co-founders and co-CEOs of California Pizza Kitchen.
JSM is a leading restaurant group based in Mumbai and is the exclusive franchisee for Hard Rock Café across India, operates the Asian-inspired Shiro Concept and other independent restaurants.
Daud Arabian Trading, headquartered in the UAE, is a subsidiary of The Daud Group of Oman which has additional operations throughout the Arab Gulf, Taiwan and India. The Daud Group has been successful in bringing such brands as McDonalds, Yo! Sushi and Gourmet Burger Kitchen to the Middle East. One of its other subsidiaries, Gourmet Gulf Company, is a current CPK franchise partner who opened the first California Pizza Kitchen restaurant in Dubai earlier this year.