Quest Mall to introduce 7 new restaurants, 3 luxury brands

Kolkata’s luxury and lifestyle destination, Quest Mall, is expanding its retail portfolio and introducing seven new restaurant and three luxury brands.
Sharing more details on the same, Vice President, CESC Properties, Sanjeev Mehra told Indiaretailing Bureau, “For this year, we are probably going to get the brand ‘Paul and Shark’ and two more brands in the luxury space. Apart from this, we are also planning to get a couple of brands from Reliance’s stable. We will hope to get Superdry, which will facilitate the women’s side. Another new entry in the mall is going to be Cover Story of the Future Group.”
He further added, “On the F&B front, we are opening Skybar this year. We have a Japanese restaurant, which we are going to open in the mall and it is going to be one of the first few Japanese restaurants that have Tepanyaki grills and Sushi conveyor belts. It will be an experience as we want to raise the bar for the people in the city. We have got Serafina, Bombay Brasserie, Yautcha, Chilli’s and we are going to add one more restaurant which is going to make it total count to seven new restaurants.”
Consumer’s Paradise
The mall, which clocked in Rs 419-420 crore revenue during first year of its operation, Rs 519 core during third year and this year Rs 585 crore, is known for implementing unique ideas like its flagship event Midsummer Night’s Sale.
Going further, the mall plans to implement more such unique ideas which will act like a crowd puller and turn the mall into an experience centre.
“We are no longer shopping centre. We have become an experience centre now where the the entire family loves to spend time together. And to cater to the interest of all age-group, apart from FnB and entertainment, we have also created a loft which is a permanent area for exhibition, pop-ups, art and culture.
F&B and Entertainment – The Crowd Pullers
No mall today can afford to stand tall with just a bouquet of brands. Shopping, food and entertainment go hand-in-hand and perhaps that is making malls pull up their socks and offer the best from all three worlds.
“I think most important thing today has become F&B and entertainment. I think F&B is very crucial. The shelf life of F&B is around three years, so there is a need to keep on upgrading a mall, keep evolving with the consumers, and keep doing new things. I think today’s requirement is ‘if you do not like anything change it immediately’. People travel a lot, they are more knowledgeable and want experiences, more than anything else. So, if malls enhance experiences, it goes a long way in bringing in the customers,” revealed Mehra.
He further added, “The next set of malls that we will build will definitely have nearly 45-50 per cent of space dedicated to F&b and entertainment.”
Quest Mall, which spans around 385,000 sq.ft., clocked Rs 585 crore revenue this fiscal and around Rs 70 crore came from the F&B end of the business.
Future Of Shopping Malls
Despite being a firm believer of technology and being an enabler, Mehra confessed that he is no plans to take the mall the Omnichannel way.
“We are not taking any Omnichannel steps as we believe that this is something retailers need to do. I can facilitate retailers,” Mehra told Indiaretailing Bureau.
He further added that Omnichannel cannot provide the experience of touch and feel of the product and for that the customers will have to visit malls. He takes it as an affirmative sign for the bright future of the shopping malls in India.
“Shopping malls are here to stay in a major way as these are not shopping centres, these are community centres. They are great interactive hot spots. At the end of the day people need to interact with others, they want to have fun and it can’t be done sitting at home,” concluded Mehra.