5 Takeaways Before you Expand your Brand
5 Takeaways Before you Expand your Brand

Opening a restaurant is not an easy task in today’s day and age when customers have become very choosy about what they are eating and where they are sitting. They are looking out for a constant innovation, consistency when choosing a place to eat out. And, for brands it is important today to identify the right mix of the clientele and the product offerings before expanding their wings to other parts.

Focus on Scalability Growth will Come

Restaurant industry runs on scalable model. Restaurant owners need to identify the brand whether it is scalable or not.  And, then look into expansion. Expanding in hurry will only land you into trouble. Be persistent in what you do.  “If the brand is not scalable we need to standardise it and then make an efficient infrastructure so that the dependency on workforce at each store is minimal,” says Karan Tanna, CEO, Yellow Tie Hospitality adding that it will help the brand to have a consistent quality of not only food but also the service and the experience.

Restaurant biz is a Mirage remember Consistency

Restaurant business is actually a mirage business. It looks very glossy but when you actually go there it is a very tough business.  “For us scaling has been the honest product, consistency. We don’t have a central kitchen but we cook biryani at each of our outlets. We prepare spices at our commissary every day which is sent to each our outlets and the biryani gets prepared at the outlets in small portions,” shares Jayanth Narayanan, Owner, Mani’s Dum Biryani who is running nine outlets in the same city.  Hence, we can say that restaurant business is a consistency driven sector.

Prioritise the Product Customer will Follow you  

If your business economics are not right there is no point expanding the brand to other region. Also, do you have the right product to make the customer happy over there? Do you have a right target audience? Once you are sure that these things are there and the product is able to solve these problems. You can expand. “In our case it was very simple; we ensure that our products are consistent and constraint at all the locations at the same time we also ensure that our supply chain is well geared up in any location in India,” points Chef Manu Nair, Corporate Chef, Billion Smiles Hospitality.

Standardisation is the Key

Food is one of the toughest formats to resolve than any other retail formats when expanding to other geographies. The elements of freshness are more dynamic in restaurant and food business. But the first and foremost thing in the food business is have you standardised your product in the territory that you are already operating in. “I know lots of entrepreneurs backed by impatient investors who want to grow really fast but the important thing is whether the basic is right, the identification of customer i.e the right TG has been done and the product has been designed keeping in mind all that aspects,” adds Vishal Kapur. The restaurants should really standardise well where they operate then they should take a call of going into a different city. India is a large country and each region has its own nuances. So, one has to modify their business model identifying the regional needs.

Focus on Supply Chain before Expansion

Supply chain is crucial and important part of the restaurant business no matter where you go in the world if you don’t have a strong supply chain you are not going to sustain. With coming GST it has become much easier for restaurants to sort out the supply chain issue anywhere in India.  “We have a central kitchen and a fixed venfor to take our raw materials to different cities we are present in,” says Dharam Khalsa, Co-Founder, California Burrito who is running 25 plus store.

 
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