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Mohan Kumar, Bengaluru's king of hospitality.

About
As per Economic Times, Mohan Kumar, the managing director of Jupiter Hospitality,  was, in his estimation, one of the first persons to take his family’s traditional liquor business and make a walk-in store in Leela Galleria, Bengaluru, way back in 2000.

This was also the time when he began two bars — one high end and the other more affordable — all of these are no longer around. Kumar’s current ventures are all more recent having evolved from his earlier ventures, with his flagship brand dating back to 2015.

Company & Brands
Jupiter Hospitality’s  brands include House of Commons which are in four Bengaluru locations— Koramangala, HSR, Indiranagar  and JP Nagar. Their other brands include 1131 in Indiranagar,  Terrace and a nightclub brand Indulge, both in JP Nagar. Besides this, they also have a 30-key boutique hotel called Temple Tree Hotel in Wilson Garden. A total of seven restaurants  and a hotel in the city.

Business Model
“Covid taught us a lot of things. I am a sole proprietor and don't have any investors—I  do everything on my own. Covid has taught us that you don't know what tomorrow holds. It made me think. It made me think of developing my brands into a more FOCO, franchise-operated model and we are in talks with the couple of investors who are already on board and finalised a couple of places in north Bengaluru, one in Kalyan Nagar and one in Yelahanka, New Town,” he said about the future of the business.

Kumar said the fact that he looks after his staff, especially during Covid when he organised transport for them to return to work, also had a positive spin on his business. The regulars like to come to his outlets because they are familiar with the staff, there is a level of comfort—which also explains the fact that all “My idea was to open a new outlet every year. As I said, Covid gave us all a reality check. Now what I have decided is for me to continue doing all this on my own, I want to go with the franchisee model,” he said about the future.

Future Plans
Kumar said he already had three investors ready to put money into his business and 2023 would be the year when he would begin to push his franchise business.

His slow and steady approach to the business has held him in good condition, Kumar felt, but being only one person, he had ensured that strong systems were in place and there were multiple audits to oversee and gauge what was happening. He had very clean books, with nothing to hide or any kickbacks

Having said that, he also added that the business was growing, and he was adding more executives who would help in the new increase beyond the three outlets which were scheduled to open in 2023 (all in North Bengaluru).

“We are planning to do at least 15 outlets in Bengaluru alone, over three years. Next year we are also planning to open in two tier cities like Mysore. There is a lot of good business happening in these places, with lots of educational institutions  but they lack good F&B outlets,” he added.