Five successful restaurateurs discuss the growth of organic and healthy eating, militant trade unions and how the government could help turn agreeable growth into a veritable industry boon.
Briefly describe your format, its advantages and disadvantages.
Dasondi: IEH essentially has three formats; franchise, company-owned and management joint ventures. Depending on the market segment, we decide which brand will suit as location is important for us.
Shek: Moshe’s was the city’s first Mediterranean restaurant. The emphasis is on cooking with local fresh seasonal produce. Moshe’s Café was the first café in the city which had chefs behind the counter tossing salads and serving sandwiches made to order. All our outlets are located in South Mumbai for affluent clientele willing to pay for quality fare.
Kothari: The Peter Cat restaurant serves Indian and Moghlai cuisines. The décor is exactly as it was when we opened in 1975. Our waiters are dressed like Pathans, the traditional dress of Afghanistan as we specialise in kebabs from Afghanistan and the North West Frontier Province.
Both Peter Cat and Mocambo (The other restaurant) are located on Park Street, the nerve centre of the restaurant business in Kolkata.
Bakshi: Ours is a 60-seater sit down family eatery in central downtown Delhi which offers a fair mix of family, business and corporate customer base.
Murada Rikhi: We started with the concept of a small fine-dine restaurant, serving authentic Moghlai and North Indian cuisine. This format has the disadvantage of high overheads and maintenance, so we recently changed it to an express food counter, called ‘On the Go’, in Delhi’s university area. Here we serve food that you would normally have in a fine-dine restaurant. We might stick with this format for future ventures.
How do you make sure you keep up to speed with consumer fads?
Dasondi: If the fads fall in to our pool of offerings, we try and incorporate them as specials or festival offerings. All our brands and menu offerings are unique; this is the single most important factor that sets us apart. Consumer demand is always changing and fads are fads, but we really have not compromised.
Shek: As a chef that is easy. I travel to learn and bring back new ideas. A lot of what I offer has also been through suggestions from customers. At the same time a lot of what we have on our menus are what I personally approve of. I had predicted the gelato fad when it started in this city. Now though, it is easier for me to avoid what I know would not work.
Kothari: If you can serve high quality food and maintain that standard everyday you do not need to worry about changing fads. There are plenty of takers for a restaurant offering old world charm and consistency in food.
Bakshi: I recommend keeping abreast with the latest trends and giving the customer what he demands, and also listening seriously to complaints and suggestions.
Murada Rikhi: We want to offer what people want so our ‘core’ remains flexible. As long as what we are offering is in demand, that remains. If the market changes, we adapt. For more passing fads, we offer food festivals.
How do you ensure your supply chain is at maximum efficiency?
Dasondi: No one in this industry has really been able to win this reliability issue, we are dependent on our reliable resources and 99% of the time our supply chain does not fail us. If it does, it is due to issues not in their (Supplier) control.
Shek: We have never any had any issues with our supply chain. We stick to local seasonal produce as far as possible and prepare a large number of the food basics in-house such as sauces, breads, syrups and spice mixes. I will soon move to creating a small scale in-house dairy to take care of our fresh cheese requirement.
Bakshi: By keeping an eye on stocks, ensuring backup suppliers and continually monitoring the inventory.
Murada Rikhi: Building good relationships with suppliers seems to be the best method. We make sure that their payment is always on time and we keep the credit period short. Also, we regularly study the market for the going rates and demand competitive rates from our suppliers. But we do not switch suppliers easily because we value long-term relationships.
What are the main challenges you face?
Dasondi: I feel getting quality labour would be first. Temperamental real estate prices, corporate governance in our industry and managing realistic food costs are second, third and fourth. In addition, the government is yet to liberalise its policies while infrastructure needs to open up for a much needed ‘restaurant street’ and entertainment zone.
Shek: Inefficiency and corruption at all levels of the governing and licensing bodies are definitely one of the hardest things to deal with. The continuous poaching of staff by competitors copying your business formats is also a problem. Another is the arbitrary increase of electricity, gas and fuel prices.
Kothari: Human resource is a vital ingredient for a successful restaurant. Our challenge is to teach staff the right work ethics and the highest standards whether in the kitchen or the dining hall.
Bakshi: For us it is licensing, there are too many windows for clearances. There is also a serious non-availability of trained manpower, staff attrition is high and rentals are also high.
Murada Rikhi: The main challenge is paperwork, licences and permits, as well as having to deal with officialdom. We just deal with it the best we can. Another challenge is getting trained staff. For the salaries that are demanded, working capabilities and experience do not match up.
Have you been affected by the downturn?
Dasondi: As an organisation, we have actually a lot to thank this downturn for. We would not have been able to get to our present efficiencies without it. We are stretched to out-perform in the current scenario and re-visit every expenditure and cost. The downturn has made us go back to the basics and keep things simple. IEH has not minimised costs, we are optimising them.
Shek: We have been affected marginally as a large part of our business comes from corporate catering. We have a very loyal local customer base and the consistently good food and service has kept our restaurant business alive. To minimise costs, we are focusing closely on our food costs and trying maximise our purchase skills.
Kothari: By God’s grace we have not been affected by the downward trend at all. In fact, our revenues and profits for the ‘08-‘09 financial year were the highest we have ever seen.
Bakshi: No. Being an established value for money eatery, having the right mix of customer base, personal supervision, close tabs on cost-to-expense ratio and minimum staff to customer ratio helps us achieve the expected ROI.
Murada Rikhi: Surprisingly no, we have not been affected. We are still doing good sales. In fact, we are in the midst of two new ventures right now (Puducherry and Delhi). We get more affected by exam times and the occasional world cups.
What changes would you like to see that would benefit your business?
Dasondi: The ministry of tourism has taken various initiatives to promote the hospitality and tourism industry in India. Planning to provide the necessary grassroot infrastructure is what it now needs to concentrate on, not moral policing, archaic laws and holding on to perishing ideologies.
Shek: I want more stringent laws in place with respect to insecticides and pesticides used by fruit and vegetable growers. Tighter controls when it comes to livestock breeding and poultry farming too. I would like mandatory details providing us with details of the origin of livestock and the type of breeding practices employed by them.
Kothari: I would like to see a hire-and-fire policy in place. Workers get away too often with unacceptable behaviour and demands. When service-oriented businesses such as restaurants are faced with aggressive and militant trade unionism, it can be fatal. Some very fine dining spots in Kolkata have shut down over the past few decades due to militant trade unions.
Bakshi: Most definitely a one window clearance policy for all manpower and licensing needs, opening of more training institutes for trained manpower, open government policy encouraging an entrepreneur-based businesses and lower sensible rentals (Free standing/malls format) to achieve a win-win situation for both landlord and tenant.
Murada Rikhi: We would like the paperwork streamlined, less corrupt and more transparent. Higher commitment to work and excellence from employees are also welcome.
What are your marketing schemes and how successful have they been?
Dasondi: We deploy bonfire marketing by creating communities within our brands to promote loyalty.
IEH has successfully built properties like Sundowners, Daddy’s Windsong Wednesdays, Film Club, Bikers Association, Backpackers Club and Back To Music. They have all been successful to various degrees.
Shek: We make absolutely no effort in marketing our outlets. I am aware of the importance of this and we will be involving ourselves in various customer loyalty programmes shortly.
Kothari: In my dictionary, the best form of marketing is by word of mouth. Make the effort to serve a good wholesome and delicious meal and word will spread. What better form of advertising can there be? We do not spend a penny on loyalty cards, promotions, advertisements or food festivals and we have no plans for doing so in the future.
Bakshi: Having a loyal customer base really helps. To be effective, your marketing strategy needs to be backed by an excellent product and therein lies the secret.
Murada Rikhi: Our two primary media platforms are advertising and food festivals. But most successful for us so far has been word of mouth publicity.
Old lady, new style
Kolkata’s legendary Flurys may be 86 years old, but she is willing to pull out new tricks to stay with the times says Priya Paul, chairperson, Apeejay Surendra Park Hotels
How do you strike a balance between consumer fads and holding on to your heritage?
Our menu has all time favourites as well as innovative modern dishes which we keep changing. Likewise, our pastry counter is also a combination of old favourites like the signature Flurys chocolates and new luxury confectionary products.
What will be the key food and restaurant trends this year?
Healthy food options with less oil and fats, sugar. There is also an increased awareness for good quality chocolates while restaurants will become more specialised and niche.
What key developments can we expect to see soon?
We plan to introduce more popular dishes in our menu and incorporate newer eating trends towards low cal and healthy eating options.
Have you been affected by the downturn at all?
The downturn has affected us also like everybody. We have taken various measures in reducing cost in conjunction with our vendors bearing in mind that customers are not affected.
What keeps Flurys going?
We provide a much more personalised boutique tea room experience that you cannot get at a fast-food restaurant or coffee chain. We keep upgrading and changing to keep in tune with changing customer preferences and demands.
At the table
Satyen Dasondi
Executive director
Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality
Moshe Shek
Owner & chef
Moshe’s, Mumbai
Nitin S Kothari
Owner
Peter Cat & Mocambo, Kolkata
Rangeeta Murada Rikhi
Co-owner
That’s Y Food, Coimbatore
Anu Bakshi
Co-owner
Fa Yian, Delhi
