How to Choose the Right Location for a Restaurant Franchise

Introduction 

Choosing the right location can make or break a restaurant franchise. A strategic address not only boosts foot traffic and visibility but also influences customer experience, operational efficiency, and long-term scalability. When it comes to The Studs, India’s most successful sports bar and restaurant franchise, location selection has been crucial to success. Studs has been successful in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Ranchi. The right location, consumer demographics, and accessibility result in positive growing sales for the franchise.

This blog covers how to select the most appropriate restaurant franchise location to maximize return on investment in India. Some topics cover key evaluative factors, a stepwise selection process, a location checklist, common mistakes made, and a case study for The Studs.

Why Location is the Foundation of Franchise Success

Your restaurant franchise is only as strong as its location. The location of a restaurant provides and sustains foot traffic with repeat customers, strong brand visibility, and an audience that aligns with your restaurant theme. Factors such as foot traffic, neighbourhood demographics, accessibility, atmosphere, and visibility all significantly impact location profitability.

In India, the dynamics of urban hotspots like Mumbai and Bangalore vary, as they provide youthful corporate crowds and nightlife demand and demand higher spending power.

Suburban areas prefer family-friendly and budget-friendly restaurants.

Every time you start and grow a restaurant franchise business in India, taking the right location is going to base your business in a profitable way, customer loyalty, customer retention, and future franchise business growth.

Key Factors to Evaluate When Choosing a Location

Market Demand & Demographics

Your very first step is to see if the area you will be opening a franchise restaurant business actually has the population that fits your target market. You will need to analyze the population in that area by looking at their age range, income range, lifestyle and preferences, and their dining habits and attitudes. This information can be obtained by looking at census information, business records, or market research websites.

An example would be if you want to open a franchise restaurant that is a sports bar, you would want to find locations that have:

• Young professionals

• Corporate parks

• College hubs

• Active nightlife culture

Accessibility & Visibility

Your restaurant will need customers no matter how great the menu is. Because of that reason, you have to evaluate how easy it is for potential customers to get to your location. You will need to evaluate:

• Access to the main road, parking and easy entrance

• Access to public transportation

• Placement of your signage and how visible it is

• How visible your restaurant is is facing the road

• Nearby areas are often visited such as malls, schools, and gyms.

India is especially unique and has a few special things to keep in mind such as footpaths, metros, and traffic. High visibility restaurants often get a lot of customers who just walk in for meals and are looking to eat.

Competition & Neighbourhood Mix

Competition isn’t always a bad thing. If similar restaurants are thriving, it proves strong demand. Study:

• Direct competitors (same cuisine/category)

• Indirect competitors (similar dining budget)

• Complementary businesses such as multiplexes, bars, gaming lounges, and entertainment hubs

For The Studs Sports Bar & restaurant franchise, coexisting near multiplexes, nightlife destinations, gaming arenas, and live-music hubs helps maximise relevance and crowd inflow.

Cost & Lease Terms

A prime address must match revenue projections. Compare:

• Rent benchmarks per sq. ft.

• Lock-in and lease tenure

• Increment slabs

• Fit-out cost

• Licensing and compliance fees

Look for venues that should support future scalability, letting you expand additional seating or replicate the model across multiple outlets.

Brand Fit & Consumer Behaviour

The surrounding environment must align with your brand identity.

• Premium brands → corporate districts/high-street markets

• Casual dining → family-friendly neighbourhoods

• Sports bar → nightlife / entertainment / high youth footfall

Tracking India-specific behaviors such as sports-viewing culture, live music demand, and dine-in revival trends helps determine whether the locality will accept your brand format.

Regulatory and Operational Considerations

Each Indian city has different compliance laws. Investigate:

• Food safety licence

• Bar / liquor licence eligibility

• Seating and zoning regulation

• Live music/event permission (essential for The Studs)

• Hours-of-operation restrictions

Step by Step Process to Determine the Best Location

1. Define your franchise concept and target geography

   Shortlist cities and sub-markets aligned with demand.

2. Short-list candidate locations

   Use foot-traffic analysis, demographic research and local insights.

3. Conduct on-site visits and compare metrics

   Evaluate accessibility, branding visibility, crowd patterns, and neighbourhood mix.

4. Financial modelling

   Analyse rent vs. projected revenue, labour availability, and operating expense.

5. Legal and compliance review

   Check lease, licences, commercial restrictions, and city-specific norms.

6. Pilot / soft launch

   Evaluate interest before fully launching.

📌 To explore franchise opportunities, The Studs supports partners with geographic screening, feasibility assessment, and location selection guidance.

Location Checklist for Launching & Scaling in India

Location Parameter	Evaluation Status
Target demographics match the brand	✔ / ✘
High foot traffic and accessibility	✔ / ✘
Near offices, colleges, malls, or entertainment hotspots	✔ / ✘
Adequate parking & public transport	✔ / ✘
Strong visibility & signage branding	✔ / ✘
Rent within revenue projection model	✔ / ✘
Long-term scalable lease	✔ / ✘
Competitor and complementary business map	✔ / ✘
Liquor / food licence eligibility	✔ / ✘
Community and consumer behaviour fit	✔ / ✘

A solid checklist ensures consistency while scaling across multiple cities in India.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Choosing a premium location without evaluating revenue potential.

• Ignoring consumer behaviour and local dining patterns.

• Underestimating regulatory/licensing costs.

• Selecting locations that don’t allow future scale.

• Not optimizing for

  while promoting a franchise location online.

How The Studs Chooses Its Locations (Case Study)

• Mumbai (Andheri) → Notable for high youth population, nightlife, corporate offices, excellent transport facilities, and entertainment activities. Outcome: high foot traffic and repeat customers.

• Bangalore (Sahakar Nagar) → Strong IT workforce with after work hangout culture and high demand for sports viewing. Outcome: high activity and growth during sports events and weekends.

These success stories come from evaluating demand, visibility, neighbourhood mix and brand fit, not merely rent or size

Conclusion

Finding the best restaurant franchise location requires analyzing the market demand, demographics, accessibility, competitors, lease price, regulations, and brand fit. A well-thought-out location guarantees that your first franchise will succeed and will give you the advantage of scaling fast across India.

Would you like to open your own The Studs restaurant franchise?

Get in touch to receive our complete Location Evaluation Guide or

👉 Visit the Franchise Enquiry Page on www.thestuds.in to get started.