KOLKATA/NEW DELHI: In 1996, when McDonald's entered India for the first time, it did the unthinkable, eschewing its trademark beef burgers. Sixteen years on, it is about to do the equivalent of blasphemous in the fast food trade by opening only-veg burger joints.

The world's second-largest restaurant chain will open its first vegetarian-only McDonald's restaurant at the foothills of the Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra in Jammu & Kashmir, next year. So what if its American fans say 'holy cow!' and faint if they walk in.

"We see a huge potential (for veg outlets) as, by nature, Indians are religious," says Vikram Bakshi, who manages McDonald's restaurants in east and north India as a joint venture partner of the US giant.

After Vaishno Devi, McDonald's plans to open another pure vegetarian outlet near the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

McDonald's has 33,000 outlets across 119 countries, serving 69 million customers everyday, but nowhere else has McDonald's been so flexible with its menu as in India.



Worldwide, the beef-based Big Mac is McDonald's signature dish, but in India vegetable products account for half of its menu and sales. The indigenously developed popular McAloo Tikki burger accounts for 25% of the company's total sales. And it plans more vegetarian items in its menu.





Bakshi, who has undertaken several pilgrimages to Vaishno Devi, says there is no organised restaurant there to serve the 1 million pilgrims visiting the shrine every year. "Every time I go there, my resolve (to open a restaurant there) becomes stronger," he says. McDonald's has signed up a property at Katra. It opened its first outlet in Jammu last month, thus creating the necessary supply chain in the region.



McDonald's Katra outlet may by a culture shock for its fans, but it's not the first global chain to open pure-vegetarian outlets to woo spiritual Indians.



Other global chains such as sandwich giant Subway - which last year surpassed McDonald's as the world's largest restaurant chain - and pizza major Domino's - India's largest quick-service restaurant chain - too have been hit by this wave of vegetarianism in India.



Subway opened its first vegetarian-only outlet at Amity University at Noida last year, followed by another at Ghatkopar in Mumbai two months ago. It plans at least four more in the near future.

Increasing Interest in Veg-Only Outlets



A Subway spokesman said the chain has received several franchisee inquiries for vegetable-only restaurants in recent months. "We are looking to tap this opportunity aggressively," he said.



Domino's has eight restaurants serving only vegetarian pizzas in places including Haridwar, Shirdi and Ahmedabad.



Yum! Restaurants, which operates chains such as KFC and Pizza Hut, has rolled out two fully-veg Pizza Hut outlets in Gujarat and plans to introduce 2-3 new vegetarian items in KFC outlets by February next.



"Currently, vegetarian products account for one in every five products in our menu. We want to grow this to appeal to a wider section of consumers which would also lead to incremental sales," says Tarun Lal, general manager at KFC India.



KFC, best known for its Zinger Chicken burger and chicken fries, wants to launch a signature veg dish to compete against McDonald's McAloo Tikki burger.



Global fast food chains operate separate kitchens for vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. Some like McDonald's maintain separate food lines throughout the various stages of procurement, cooking and serving, while KFC has adopted additional measures such as separate service counters and team member uniforms in markets such as Ahmedabad.



Amit Jaita, vice-chairman for Hardcastle Restaurant that manages McDonald's in west and south India, meanwhile, says his group has no immediate plans to roll out any vegetarian-only McDonald's outlets, but plans to add more vegetarian burgers to its menu.