Brands
Hard Rock International cuts ties with JSM Corporation, ending a decade of cafe operations across India
Ten locations from Bengaluru to Kolkata go dark after the American brand formally terminates its operator agreements — only the Goa hotel survives
FLORIDA: One of the most recognisable names in global hospitality has just gone dark across India. Hard Rock International has formally terminated its agreements with JSM Corporation Private Limited and related entities, stripping them of the right to operate all Hard Rock Cafes and Rock Shops in the country. Every last one of them.
The termination sweeps across ten locations: Hard Rock Cafe Bengaluru, Bengaluru International Airport, Bengaluru Whitefield, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Hyderabad Hitech City, Kolkata, New Delhi and Pune. That is the entire footprint of the brand’s cafe and retail operation in India, gone in one fell swoop.
JSM Corporation, the Mumbai-based hospitality group that brought the Hard Rock Cafe brand to India and built it into a ten-city operation over the years, has lost the lot. Hard Rock International has not disclosed the reasons for the termination, nor has JSM made any public statement.
One outpost escapes the carnage. The Hard Rock Hotel in Goa, which operates under a separate arrangement and is not connected to JSM, will remain open and continues to trade as normal.
For the thousands of regulars who have spent evenings amid the guitars and memorabilia at any of the ten shuttered venues, the brand’s exit from the cafe and retail segment marks an abrupt and unceremonious end. Hard Rock came to India with considerable fanfare. It is leaving considerably more quietly.
