Restaurant Elvis is planning to open a new branch in Mtatsminda Park by the end of April. According to Vika Chikaidze, assistant to the General Manager of Elvis, the restaurant’s income has increased by 60-70% since its opening.
She says that demand for Elvis fast food is very high and the number of their clients is increasing. Such high demand for Elvis’s fast food could have a negative impact on the McDonald’s business in Georgia which has led the local fast food market for the past 12 years.
Recently McDonald’s started offering lower prices for its products. The company now claims to offer products at very affordable prices. Its advertisements are now common on outdoor billboards.
The prices for Elvis fast food are higher than in the McDonald’s chain but Elvis representatives claim that the popularity of their food is determined by the larger size of the hamburgers and the Thai food.
The Elvis fast food restaurant, located in Tbilisi ’s Philharmonic concert hall, invested 1,200,000 USD in its Georgian business. “The franchising cost of Elvis was quite high, the full amount of which is about 250,000 USD,” Magalashvili said.
“We are competing with the other fast food restaurants present on the local market. We offer our consumers 3 types of cuisine: Thai, American and Italian. We have fast food on the first floor and on the second floor we offer our customers a restaurant service. Elvis also has a delivery service, which has become much in demand over the last two weeks and we are hoping that the popularity of this service will increase still further,” Chikaidze says.
“Since its opening the number of Elvis’s customers has increased by 50%. Elvis is very popular in Tbilisi . The reason for its popularity is because of the high quality of service and food Elvis offers its consumers,” Chikaidze says.
According to Chikaidze, Elvis was something new for most people and many were drawn to it by their interest in tasting the unusual cuisine on offer at the restaurant, for example the Thai menu.
“We plan to add new different meals every month, including Lenten dishes and exceptional fruit desserts in the summer. However at the moment we are concentrating more on opening our new branch,” Chikaidze says.
“We have 4 cooks from Thailand who prepare the Asian dishes. Our other cook who prepares the Italian dishes lived in Italy for 7 year and has a restaurant there. So every meal that we offer to our clients is very tasty and authentic,” Chikaidze told The FINANCIAL.
According to Chikaidze, From Monday to Friday between 11 and 4 o’clock, Elvis offers its customers a business lunch deal at very low prices. “During this time you can get a hamburger with potato chips and a Coke for just 8 GEL,” she says.
“The fact that Elvis is located in such a prime place, in the Philharmonic concert hall, attracts even more customers. Before and after concerts or other events in the Events Hall, Elvis is full of clients,” Chikaidze says.
In the summer Elvis plans to add an open air restaurant outside of the branch in the Philharmonic hall.
According to Chikaidze Elvis’s service is suitable for business people as well.
“Due to our delivery service, we have quite a large amount of orders from foreign Embassies in Georgia. This month we will host delegations from Azerbaijan and Armenia. We already hosted a delegation from the American Embassy,” Chikaidze says.
“We have corporate clients and various companies existing in Georgia are already our loyal clients. In corporate sales we are also competing with other fast food restaurants existing in Georgia,” Chikaidze says.