How Restaurants have become more than just eating joints

In the last few years, food business has become one of the most loved interests for both, investors and food business operators. With more than 30 per cent of franchising happening in the restaurant business alone, it has become an exciting sector to invest in.

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 From just eating out to celebrate or to enjoy a moment, restaurants today have become the next go to place for every individual in the country. No matter where you are or what you doing, good food will always find a place in your to do list. Newer cuisines and innovations are heating the food biz scenario with acceptability from people, making future more profitable for restaurant operators.

“Standalone restaurants with exciting presence and appearance and latest cuisines are the future of restaurants in India,” shares Sharad Sachdeva, CEO, Lite Bite Foods. Today, people do not believe in going to a restaurant dressed in formal attire, rather they look out for experiences that are casual, comfortable, affordable and above all has value in it.

“High end fine dining is now gone, there is much more importance for value dining. Not only people in metro cities and urban diners, but because of the socio-economic shift, people in tier-II and tier III are eating out much more than they used to. People are more open to drinking and liquor is here to stay,” adds Anurag Katriar, CEO deGustibus Hospitality, which was one of the few restaurants to set up the trend of Fine dining standalone restaurants in India with Indigo in Mumbai.

QSR is no more exciting
As Indian food business has witnessed many global trends and brands entering the country, QSRs have lost its charm in last few years. From a place which was known for serving affordable and quality food, it has become a place to be serving sub standard food. And, the quarterly poor results of top brands like McDonald’s, Domino’s, Dunkin’ Donuts and KFC very much proves that Indians are no more interested in cheap-cum-affordable food, rather they have matured up when it comes to freshness and selection of ingredients and global trends.

“Indian QSRs have become a place to be offering sub standard food, though it has to be good food, served at a fast pace,” believes Katriar.

As, global marriage of trends are happening more often, we can say that quick service restaurants are placed in dangerous zone and will see lot of action in the years to come..“If you have to make your QSR perform well and successful in the market, you have to keep the storage and back-end in place. Until your infrastructure is not right, you are not going to succeed,” says Sanjay Coutinho, CEO, Baskin Robbins.

Franchising is the key
As everyone believes that franchising is the fastest medium when it comes to expansion of the brand, in last few years there has been multiple opportunities in the segment. Not only local players who are ready to expand are looking for a local franchisee or a franchise partner to spread its business oversees, but also brands who are entering India have joined hand with a local partner to spread their wings in the country.

“Treat your franchisee as partner in your business and respect the franchisee and franchisor relations, it’s where you excel,” points Karan Tanna, CEO, Genuine Broaster Chicken which opened its first outlet in Mumbai few months back.

“We have 85 per cent of our franchisees profitable because of the support and back-end that we have built in India,” comments Coutinho, who has set over 672 Baskin Robbins outlets in India with only one company owned outlet.

And, hence with many opportunities which are unfolding the food business scenario in India, we really can see more and more exciting concepts hitting the space.