NEW DELHI: McDonald’s is ramping up its brand extension business in India. Although burgers continue to be the backbone of the US fast food chain, it now earns a fourth of its revenues from ice cream, smoothies and coffee. To speed up its brand extension business, the company has started a remodelling exercise to make its stores look fast-casual in South and West India. “We are trying to blur the line. This is what McDonald’s will look like to millennials in the future,” said Amit Jatia, vice-chairman of Westlife Development and McDonald’s partner in West and South India. The burger chain has four brand extensions: Delivery, breakfast, dessert kiosks and McCafe. Jatia said sales value of these may touch Rs 850 crore in four years. Along with selling burgers, that’s roughly the sum Jatia makes from 216 McDonald’s stores in the country. “However, I want to be clear about the fact that our brand extension lines don’t cover all our restaurants. We are working on it. For instance, we have opened 52 McCafes. In three years, we expect our coffee business to earn around Rs 250 crore,” he said. McCafe is a coffee-house-style food and drink chain owned by the burger chain. Interestingly, it has yielded more revenues for McDonald’s than its regular stores in some markets. McCafes are housed inside regular McDonald’s in India. Jatia said he has earmarked an investment of Rs 750 crore to open around 200 new restaurants in five years. His company Westlife Development operates McDonald’s stores through its subsidiary, Hardcastle Restaurants. While Westlife reported a 21% increase in revenue for the September quarter led by its restaurant business, McDonald’s has been juggling with the dual problem of a sluggish economy and a legal battle with its estranged partner in North India, Vikram Bakshi, the owner of Connaught Plaza Restaurants. One of the first international quick service restaurants (QSR) to enter the domestic market, McDonald’s was ousted from the position of the country’s largest QSR player by US pizza maker Domino’s in 2013. Subsequently, it slipped behind its US rival KFC and now resides in the third position, according to a Euromonitor report from August. The organized QSR business in the country is poised to grow at a CAGR of 25% to reach around Rs 16,800 crore by 2018, Jatia said.