When Hurrem’s opened its café and dessert bar in 2019, Mumbai’s restaurant landscape was booming. A year later, everything upended.
Hotels, restaurants and bars closed following a nationwide lockdown to curtail the spread of COVID-19. Many shifted to a delivery-only model in the interim to stay afloat and ensure some business continuity. During the first lockdown last year, Hurrem’s, too, temporarily shut until mid-June, after which it re-opened its kitchen for deliveries.
Talking about the year of uncertainty and how it disrupted their business plans, Ahmed Farid, Co-Founder of Hurrem’s said, “Our experience centre with an eat-in service has been paused temporarily in line with the state government’s regulations. We currently offer deliveries through the day via our delivery partners. Patrons can also visit the café to pick-up offerings between 8am and 2pm for the time being.”
TIME WELL SPENT
The brand’s promoters utilised this downtime to address the challenge of translating their experience-led on-premise offering into deliveries. Going back to the drawing board to adapt to changing consumer preferences, it decided to put greater focus on deliveries and tied up with delivery platforms like Zomato and Swiggy.
The company used the slowdown to expand its range of confectionery offerings. Having understood the Turkish flavours and ingredients that work well with the Indian palate, it brought on board Chef Yetkin Batak from Turkey. He added over 30 new offerings to the brand’s 100% vegetarian menu to make it even more expansive.
Hurrem’s also adopted a multi-channel approach to make the brand available at multiple locations. It entered into a long-term strategic partnership with gourmet retail chain, Foodhall, in September 2020, setting up a dedicated shop-in-shop concept at its Mumbai outpost. In June 2021, it set shop at JW Marriott Mumbai Juhu.
With virtual celebrations becoming a norm, there was a growing demand for food hampers for gifting. Cashing in on this trend, Hurrem’s launched a collection of customisable gift hampers. This ranged from a box of assorted baklava to a luxe hamper consisting of its most premium offerings.
“Also, from the very start, our business model was based on a 70% takeaway and 30% eat-in. Even though we were affected by COVID, the impact wasn’t large on the takeaway business,” Farid gratefully added.
Hurrem’s collection of customisable gift hampers ranges from a box of assorted baklava to a luxe hamper consisting of its premium offerings.
BACK TO BUSINESS
With the re-opening of physical spaces, many restaurateurs are holding out hope that their establishments will gradually revert to pre-pandemic business levels. Farid is amongst them.
He pointed out that the pandemic altered the dine-in experience, and guests want to revisit their erstwhile delightful dining experiences. This will quicken the industry’s move to normalcy, with stringently adherence to safety and hygiene measures.
“We experienced this when we briefly reopened the café earlier this year. Patrons were happy to be back enjoying the best of Hurrem’s experience,” he added. This was also a result of the brand’s efforts to rebuild consumer confidence.
The café received 92.86% rating from Equinox Labs following a virtual audit, which is higher than the industry average for hygiene and safety. All guests and staff follow mandatory safety protocols, including regular temperature checks, use of protective coverings, social distancing and the regular use of sanitisers.
Farid stated that communicating these safety and sanitisation processes as well as its food handling procedures was a key step in building consumer confidence and eventually garnering consumer loyalty. “For instance, our baklava is baked at 180°C, a temperature that no life form can withstand. This baking process is followed by contactless packaging and delivery process ensuring that the only person in direct contact with the food once it is out of the oven is the customer. Hence, communicating the safety and sanitisation aspects has grown to become as important as communicating your brand’s USP in this day and age,” he added.
During the lockdown, Hurrem’s added over 30 new offerings to its 100% vegetarian menu to make it even more expansive.
PACKED AND SEALED
Hurrem’s management dug deep to find ways to sustain and flourish during the pandemic during uncertain times. At a time, when brands were pulling back their spending budgets, the company decided to leverage on intelligent packaging to extend a memorable F&B experience, especially for its customised gift hampers.
“At Hurrem’s, packaging is much more than a logistical element. It plays a meaningful role in bringing value to our customers. With gifting being a core focus for the brand, we have always aimed to extend our brand identity into every element of the packaging as well,” Farid explained.
Having spent considerable time and effort to perfect the look and feel of the brand’s packaging, the team ensured that it is an exact match to the brand aesthetic, core values and quality. The hampers are characterised by the hand-painted and hand carved wooden boxes that present Turkish symbols.
For instance, the ‘Krall Luxury Hamper’ comprises hand-painted wooden boxes with a portrait Hurrem Sultan, who brought baklava to the masses. Farid stated that these packaging options work extremely well as part of the bespoke gift hampers that company launched late last year.
In a challenging year, Hurrem’s promoters displayed resilience that not only helped the business survive, but to thrive. Farid maintained that this was possible because it focused on continuously bettering products, adding new categories to existing product lines and constantly evolving to stay relevant. Though caught off guard by the pandemic just a year into its operations, it worked to up its off-premise game constantly, which helped it log in decent pandemic sales, even better than it had hoped for.
