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It’s finally happening! Yeah you heard it right…restaurants in Maharashtra are now allowed to operate till 12 am in the midnight starting October, 22.

Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray has directed the state administration to issue guidelines for extending the business hours for restaurants and bars.

"In the wake of the upcoming festival season, it is now felt that restrictions on time of functioning for various establishments like shops, restaurants, hotels etc. will lead to more crowding in the shorter duration in which they are currently allowed to function. Hence, the establishments will be allowed to operate till 12 am," read the CMO statement.

However, the government has kept the conditions like; proper sanitization, vaccination of employee, and 50 per cent seating capacity same.

At present restaurants were operating till 10 pm and the sector has been requesting government for an extension since long.

Earlier, Indian Hotel and Restaurant Association (AHAR), had once again requested its demand for extending the operational timings of city restaurants to pre-covid time period, i.e. till 1.30 am taking into account that Diwali was round the corner.

With this move, the restaurant and bars owners have witnessed a sense of relief as with Diwali and other festivals around the corner, they were targeting their sales to touch the pre-covid numbers.

With rise in coronavirus cases that is hitting some parts of the country again, there’s no denying that restaurants in parts of the country are facing the crunch again. Hence, it is very important for these brands to learn from the winners who have stood strong during these unprecedented times.

Also Read: Borrow, Merge, Innovate: As 2020 takes bite out of business, restaurants look to turn the table

No doubt this has been a very challenging phase and one that is quite unprecedented. Restaurants have already gone through a tumultuous few months from March onwards. In the peak lockdown months they had stores temporarily shut or restricted with timings, material transport Pan India and logistics suffered, managing the ground operations team and managing to sustain without footfalls for the first couple months while making sure to keep the team motivated and incentivised to ensure the highest level of safety and SOPs was challenging for the overall sector.  Also, there were multiple internal and external challenges faced by the restaurants but despite of all this they have stood strong welcoming their guests back.

Here are some of the key leanings from India’s top brands and restaurant owners from 2020 crisis.

Quality: Quality is an important part of a restaurant business. One of the key factors that restaurants focused during the pandemic was delivering quality. “Very important learning is to keep focused on quality, quality and only quality.  We were always very conscious of our ingredients, hygiene and food safety measures.  This I feel has actually helped us gain in the Covid time,” shared Vineet Manochaof Lite Bite Foods that own brands like Zambar, Punjab Grill, Asia Seven to name a few.

Be Adaptive and innovative: “Most important learnings have been around ensuring that we are nimble, adaptive and innovative and have the ability to make quick decisions and react fast to effect change in a scalable manner within a constantly evolving landscape, all while ensuring quality and customer comfort come first,” said Ankit Patel, CEO, Belgian Waffle Co.

Customer is the King: We have learnt that most important aspects for a brand are its goodwill and the product value. A restaurant is made or break by the customer it has or the fan base it gets. “Even during the pandemic people kept ordering from our restaurants due to the strong faith that they have on our brands. We are happy and blessed to learn that we have been able to build that trust among our customers,” added Debaditya Chaudhury, MD, Chowman Hopitality Pvt. Ltd.

Relooking the business model: The pandemic has made every restaurant owner relook at the business model by way of size, structure, venue and pricing. “As we are re-open, we are looking at the bottom line very strongly, keeping in mind that there will be lot of stress       on the compliance in the future. So, where ever we are opening, we are working on a new business model, so that in case we face such kind of situations in the future we would be able to settle in better,” shared Anjan Chatterjee of Speciality Restaurants who also entered into the cloud-kitchen model during the pandemic.

May Interest: Anjan Chatterjee owned Speciality Restaurants plans to set up 26 cloud kitchens across the country

It’s all about team work: Times like this reaffirm that your biggest asset and backbone is your team. “We need to have a lean team, efficient systems apart from many new and innovative ideas to do business,” pointed Sharad Sachdeva of L Catterton that has invested in Impresario Handmade Restaurants.

It all began in 2009. They say it right humble beginnings often make for interesting stories. That’s what happened with the owners at The Tummy Section. “We are three friends who started this business with big dreams in one hand and a Shawarma (We call it Shawario) in another,” remebered Nikhil Arora, Co-Founder, The Tummy Section. The reason why they call it Shawario is because they have their very own process of prepping the delicacy which makes it completely theirs. It’s like Shawarma met Trio and Shawario was originated.

Now that you are completing 11 years of the business. How have you grown in all these years.

God has been kind on us from the day of our inception. We have seen a lot of ups and down in all these years like opening of new stores and closing of few. But that has taught us a lot of valuable business lessons and all is now coming into action. Before the pandemic we had six sites in total. Four physical stores and two cloud kitchens. It was a big hit for us to close down a few stores and starting again towards goal. Now we have a franchise program in place and are also opening new company operated stores. We have a strong feeling that rest of the 2020 will be the best year for The Tummy Section.

Also Read: Burma Burma starts delivery in Mumbai, resumes dine-in in Delhi, Bengaluru

How many outlets are you running. What is the plan?

Due to pandemic currently only two outlets are operational at the moment. There are two more outlets that is under construction and we are planning to open total 5 outlets by the end of this year.

Covid-19 pandemic has brought lots of changes to the dining biz. How have you adapted to the current change?

Yes, it surely did and we are really happy about the same. It gave us an opportunity to see through a lot of areas of our operations and give it a new face. We have still not started the dine in at our Rajouri outlet. The biggest improvement came as technological advancements we made during this time in all areas across our operations.

How have you seen the delivery picking up during this time?

Intially, during the month of unlock deliveries definitely picked up and keep rising month on month but as the restriction have started to ease down now. The balance has started to take place between deliveries and pick up from our outlets. Dine in business is still suffering but we are hopeful that it will come back in flow post August.

What about opening your restaurants? What changes have you incorporated as per Govt advice?

We have opened two of our outlets but have not started the dining yet keeping the safety measures in mind. We are trying our level best to follow the govt. advice for a safer experience for our staff and our customers. Premises sanitisation, Deep cleaning and temperature check is a norm now and i think we all should learn from the current situation to enhance our safety precautions for the normal times as well. We are taking every challenge as learning.

We see that now people are looking at brands that have more impactful safety and hygiene history. How are you attracting your customers?

This goes without saying! But i think a lot of restaurants have taken this as an opportunity to bounce back better with better standards in place. We are offering new loyalty programs, showcasing our efforts of sanitisation & cleaning of premises via our social media chanels. We are trying our best to convey to our customers that they can trust us and go ahead in enjoying the addictions we offer.

Must Read: “I think delivery is the next best thing to dining in,” says Hitesh Keswani

What is the daily average orders you do, what is the ticket size?

Our daily average is seeing a huge shift from mid July. Orders are picking up and so is ticket size. We are currently catering around 250+ orders on peak days and approx 150 orders on normal days. Average ticket size for an order is around 450 and average ticket size per order for pick up orders is around 275. We can’t thank our customers enough for showing their trust towards the brand.

Going forward, what new we can see happening at The Tummy Section.

This pandemic has taught us a lot about People, Business and processes and we are taking these learning sincerely and are continuously evolving internally in all areas & departments. We have laid down a strong base during this time either its improving our base kitchen operations or handling people or marketing channels or giving an unforgettable exp. to our customers by giving them what they expect out of us. 

India being such a large market 90 per cent of the overall market is still standalone chains and most of the businesses either have one or two outlets. So, How do I take those outlets to the next level, how do I grow it, what sort of differentiation do I create are some important aspect when one wants to expand their businesses beyond the four walls.

Innovation is not just limited to food, menu or service but innovation is also about customer experience. We do lots of fun activities to keep customers coming back.

Innovation is the Key: Innovation is not just limited to food, menu or service but innovation is also about customer experience. Restaurants these days do lots of fun activities to keep customers coming back to them again and again. “When we started Sassy Spoon in Nariman Point we started it as a fine dine restaurant but four years later when we thought of starting it in Pune and saw the demographic over there we find that the target audience was very different from the kind of target audience we had for fine dine in Mumbai. So, we have to tweak our offerings and price points as per the Pune market,” shared Rachel Goenka of the Chocolate Spoon Company that owns Sassy Spoon.  This is not enough, the young restaurateur came back to Mumbai tweaked their offerings, increased seating options by catering to a wider customer base and that’s how they have grown from being a fine dining to a premium casual restaurant. “When we entered the Pune market we knew that innovation was important but localization and innovating it as per that market was more important,” she added.

It’s all about Great Food and Service: The fundamental to restaurant business is still great food and great service and it still stays organic. The top two reasons with diners are still dining with family and relatives. “People enjoy your meal, get the comfort and that’s where they are coming back and back and that’s give them the confidence in the brand. So, when you are ready to scale, always meet your customer expectation,” said Reynold Fernandes, COO, FoodLink Services.

It’s Important to Associate with Brand: “When we invested in Faasos in 2014 it was a network of QSRs and the average AOV was 200 rupees. One challenge for us at that point was how do we increase the AOV and take it to Rs 300. We launched higher value products like pizza etc but it didn’t work as customer set an expectation of associating a brand by serving a particular kind of food. That’s when we asked our customer have you seen Faasos restaurant and the reply was obviously not. That’s when we realized that a front-end footprint to grew at a large scale and since then we have opened more than 200 network of a dark store across 13 cities in India,” points Varun Verma, Associate, Lightbox Ventures.

Restricting Travel: “Earlier, customer would love to travel across and go to faraway places to dine and check out concepts. Right now, what happened is that every pocket has a bunch of restaurant which has restricted you to travel and save from higher traffic,” says Hitesh Keswani, Founder & Director, Silver Beach Entertainment & Hospitality as going to neighborhood works for people and that’s what they have started opting for.

Get your Backend fixed: Before you think of scaling your business your backend has to be so simplified that it is ctrl+c and ctrl+v and that’s when it is going to help you in scaling up when you to one outlet to multiple outlet.

The food industry, which is currently valued at US$ 39.71 billion, is expected to grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 11 per cent to US$ 65.4 billion by 2018. Food and grocery account for around 31 per cent of India’s consumption basket.

The Indian food processing industry accounts for 32 per cent of the country’s total food market, one of the largest industries in India and is ranked fifth in terms of production, consumption, export and expected growth.

It contributes around 14 per cent of manufacturing Gross Domestic Product (GDP), 13 per cent of India’s exports and six per cent of total industrial investment. Indian food service industry is expected to reach US$ 78 billion by 2018.The Indian gourmet food market is currently valued at US$ 1.3 billion and is growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 20 per cent. India's organic food market is expected to increase by three times by 2020.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) estimates that the food processing sectors have the potential to attract as much as US$ 33 billion of investment over the next 10 years and also to generate employment of nine million person-days.

Coming up with a restaurant is not a cake walk but the most difficult part of this business is to be in the game, for which it is important to build the restaurant brand:

Define Your Restaurant Brand:

India is a home for foodies, which is one of the reasons why the number of restaurants, fast food corners and production of food products are multiplying themselves on daily basis.

Thus to stand out in the crowd, it is important to define your restaurant brand and to define that one needs to answer some vital questions before going forward:

Who are you?

What are you doing?

Why are you doing it?

In short keep your unique selling point (USP) clear in your head. These answers will help you in figuring out the basic idea of starting the business in the first place and will even push you in putting efforts to build the brand.

Brand Positioning:

There is a combination of four aspects that draw revenue for the brand and they are: Product, Price, Place and Promotion.

Brand positioning, helps in directing and narrowing down brand awareness to the target audience.

It will solve a number of problems such as identifying the key partners, who will help in the investments, key activities, on how to proceed further, determining value positioning, customer relationship, key resources, distribution channels, cost structure and revenue stream.

Research reports seem to indicate that Indian consumers seem to be patronising Italian cuisine the most, gulping down pizzas and pastas. Chinese comes next. This, reports say, is largely fuelled by young consumers aged 14-45 years.

Get Technologically Connected:

The technological bug has bitten everybody and if you still live in that old school thought bubble, of promoting or marketing on newspapers and radio ads, then time to burst it and hit the social media for promotions.

Social media alone has produced many restaurateurs, food bloggers, chefs, who have become online celebrity.

Internet and technology create convenience, so take advantage of it to create the kind of space people look forward to returning to. Look at your market and ask yourself what kind of conveniences technology can offer them.

Offer free wi-fi to customers, online gaming space for kids or you can create a technologically themed space, these can fetch you a lot of families and children.

Maach(fish) and mishti(sweets) is what Bengalis live by and satiating their taste buds since 1994 is Kasturi, a brand serving authentic Bangladeshi cuisine. Presently headed by Bishal Saha the second generation of the founder family, Kasturi, meaning fragrance or musk, continues to be a favourite among the bong foodies.

Founded by Late Gopal Chandra Saha, Kasturi boasts of spicy and robust food, with an interesting spread of traditional Dhakai dishes including Dhakai Morog Pulao, Kochupatae Chingri Bhapa, Ilish Bhapa, Bhuna Khichudi. The award-winning, joint located in the heart of the city pioneered this type of cuisine in Kolkata.

As a third generation entrepreneur in F&B industry (his grandfather was a restaurateur in Dhaka) and second in the family business, most of the tricks of this trade came to him by inheritance. Being born into a family of restaurateur, Saha has all along lived to in the world of food and has now established himself as an entrepreneur with unmatched business acumen.

Saha was visibly enthused to participate in Restaurant India 2017 East India Edition, held in Kolkata on June 22 and called it very helpful as he was able to learn a lot from the people of the industry and got good exposure as well.

Speaking to Restaurant India, Saha explained how he joined family business, his experience since then and his challenges and learnings.

What all you dabbled in before getting into your family business?
I took over my Father's business post completing my graduation in 2010, when Kasturi had only one restaurant in entire Kolkata. After competing my Graduation I was planning to go to Australia for further studies however before I could actually move there I decided to go to Kasturi just to get an understanding of our business, here is when I realized the actual potential of my business and my vision for this brand came. My vision and systematic planning has indeed helped me grow from a single unit to seven units in a time frame of 7 years making it one of the sought after Bengali restaurant brands in Kolkata. I am an ardent foodie often experimenting with new recipes and have been successful in bringing out some of the most innovative dishes like Bekti Sizzlar or Bekti Florntine to name a few.

What all did you keep in the business and what did you change?
I strongly vouch for the core or essence of Kasturi as a food joint which fundamentally includes food quantity and quality along with the belief that customer is God and must be treated like one. I am only changing the brand in its external spaces like presentation and ambience while keeping the soul intact.

Since 2010 Kasturi has been on an expansion mode and has opened its Ballygunge outlet in September 2011 with a 34-seater. Today I operate a chain of 6 restaurants in Kolkata and one in Gwahati, Assam. In the pipeline is my new brand ‘Banglar Swad’ which is a theme based restaurant which aims at bringing in the taste of rural Bengal to the customers. Besides, I am planning to bring in the health quotient to the new brand, as customers today prefer less oily and spicy dishes.

What are the challenges you have faced since you joined the business?
Like any other entrepreneur I too have faced my share of challenges. Political pressure, red-tapism, labour crisis continue to create impediments in the growth trajectory, but I learnt to work hard to remain unfazed and determined in attaining my goals slow and steady.

What is your advice to aspiring entrepreneurs?
Vision, planning, programming, executing and sustaining is the model I prescribe for the aspiring entrepreneurs who I think are privileged to have the advantage of technology and information to do it big in business.

Brands convey a uniform quality, credibility and experience to your customers. It shapes consumers’ perceptions and expectations too. Hotel brands like Taj, Oberoi and Hyatt have made themselves known in the hotel industry because of the sheer brand building exercises they have undertaken. These brands have communicated their identity clearly to the target group that others could not. So to understand the concept of branding in Indian hotel and restaurant industry, we have to understand the following areas-

Areas to look upon

Feedback: Restaurant experts believe that negative feedback about products and services should be considered while developing the branding strategy. Make a list of the things where you have been pointed out, and reposition it the next time when your customer is in for lunch/dinner.

Use Social Media: Social media is the easiest way of looking for consumers. Today, people are more active on social media than relying on going out to a restaurant and checking the offerings. Create a Facebook page, advertise through Twitter and post new offerings and product launch on your page. This will not only help you create a brand strategy, but will also increase your visibility.

Creating a Logo: Company logo is an important part of branding. It is a way of branding your restaurant. Restaurant like Mad About China, which focuses on Chinese cuisines targeting the young customer has used a Chinese trendy woman in its logo communicating the brand value.

Bringing new offerings: Introducing new menu to the existing one of the restaurant is always a positive sign of branding. An industry expert says that, about 15-20 percent of sales come from new offerings that a restaurant introduces strategically.

Product differentiation:

Creating a different image from others in the market is very important for a brand. For instance, in a move to create product differentiation among global coffee brands, Cafe Coffee Day’s new dialogue box, designed by Landor Associates, was able to introduce its customers the concept of social hub. A restaurateur should work on all areas to make his product more demandable than his competitor. Brands like Subway and McDonalds consider competitor strength and weaknesses and competitor retaliation potential.

Ameet Pahilani, Founder, Cafe Chokolade, says, “The most important thing is standardisation of the product, as you need to serve the same taste irrespective of the place you are serving”.

Branding for Start-up

Creating a brand image for a start-up restaurant is difficult. Word-of-mouth is the best way for branding a new restaurant because your customers are the one who will communicate about your brand to others.

According to the industry experts, a new restaurant should focus more on the product and operations rather than investing money in branding and marketing. This is because if the product is good and have value for money offerings, it will definitely create a brand identity for the restaurant.

Red Ginger Hospitality, owned by Gaurav Ahuja, who runs restaurants like Mad About China, Sizzler Cafe and Indian Tadka, believes in delivering fresh foods and value for money prices to maintain a brand identity.

For established and scaling-up brands

An established and growing brand should focus more on consistency. Once your restaurant is a hit, you have to focus on every single metric to maintain the brand image. Tasty food and value for money product can bring your customer close to you.

Manish Kumar Baheyeti, Owner, Haute Services Pvt Ltd, shares, “If you give a good meal one day and bad meal the other day, things will not work. You have to create an image, a brand identity for your offerings.”

Ajay Kaul, CEO, Jubilant Foodworks, says, “Every single metric has to be built so that every store looks like one, how satisfied are people here, how satisfied are the customers here, what is the ‘khushiyon’ ka meter reading here. We believe that this is the reason why not a single store of ours is closed in last six years creating brand identity.”

Challenges faced

Spending a large amount on marketing your brand is the major challenge that a restaurant faces. Target audience is another important part of branding, most often restaurant branding fails because of owners’ unawareness of target customers.

A restaurateur should avoid spending more on branding rather try to bring in value for money into his offerings. “Do not communicate any wrong message about your product and offering to the customer,” warns Ahuja.