How this Baroda based cafe is tasting the sweet success of growth
How this Baroda based cafe is tasting the sweet success of growth

How it all began

Goodies was initially a bakery which was started by my Parents Lily and Noshir Modi with a team of only 7 employees in 1991 but were able to ease their way into the market due to the quality, consistency and variety of their products and services. We used to supply to people and other retail stores directly. Gradually, we felt that our products were not given extra care. So, we thought of doing a retail store where we could showcase our products, and also open a cafe. Now, this wasn’t a cafe in a traditional sense but we wanted to serve meal as well. In 2001, we started Goodies outlet where we had both retail as well as dine in section. And, that’s how it began.

Serving the best

The menu is quite vast. We have a lot of indo chinese food, continental food, Indian food but the USP is Parsi food that’s what we do best. Initially it was only one outlet but it did very well and then we started second outlet in 2005. We have a lot of corporate clients in Baroda, we supply to hotels, restaurants, caterers and movie theatres amongst other. All the bakery requirements are handles by us. We are into both supplier as well as restaurant business. We have a manufacturing unit that supplies to these clients. In 2007 we started doing malls and other retail outlets. It was in 2009 we started franchising and opening multiple outlets expanding our cafe into the market.

Taking the legacy forward

I have been into the business for five years now. There was lot of rapid growth that was happening in the company and my parents wanted some help. Also, we have changed couple of things as I am a chef by profession we have enhanced few stuffs. We started doing outdoor catering- it is very niche gathering where I curate menu myself. And, I do not repeat stuff as this is small place and people should experience unique menus every time. We did a brunch for 120 people where we had a live dessert counter and we do a lot of fusion products. We do products like baked vadapav just to add healthiness in it.

Building on quality

We are running seven outlets in Baroda out of which 5 are franchised and 2 are company owned. I want to explore local cities at first before opening at far locations because logistic is the challenge. We are also planning to open other brands. We have a lot of person involvement in our products because we are very quality conscious. We can open up a kebab restaurant as Baroda has lots of potential for good kebab as there is no good option available.

Franchising is the key

Franchising is great but we need to have very good team to expand this. I am very happy handling the backend, the production and my mother is a consultant for top hotels so the service, training we do in house but it’s difficult for us to shift focus on expansion so there is a team for us who partner with us and work in sync with us.

Right partner

The person has to like food and the industry as a passion. A lot of people come to us that we have money and we want to open a restaurant but we never give them franchisee because food business is one such industry where one needs to have lots of involvement. They need to have certain standards set as far as quality goes- how the food, the service should be.

Expansion plans

We will look at cities in Gujarat and not other markets because the main problem is our product as it has very low shelf life and is delicate to handle. So, setting up an outlet far away needs a lot of backend support, manufacturing unit. 

 
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