Insight into global F & B retail

Latest food fad fever grips every enthusiast irrespective of whether she or he is a bon vivant or not. Taking the example of the couple, Loretta and Samar Abidi, it's a weekend ritual to try new cuisines at several restaurants. The process is enjoyable and offers them culinary delight, an experience that begins with an appetising aroma of the food being cooked and continues till it savours eventually the tongue.

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Loretta excitedly conveys, "It's the matter of choice that takes you off to different places and try new dishes that you have never tasted altogether. Sometimes, you are floored by the variety of pastas they serve, sometimes dim sum amazes you and sometimes you just find it irresistible to wait till your Chicken Marsala arrives. We not only call ourselves great foodies, with the kind of variety being available in our vicinity, we have become complete food addicts who love to keep on experimenting with taste."

What is evident from this conversation is that every person is a connoisseur when it comes to soothing the taste buds. Large number of eating joints in various formats operating every city and metro of the country serve this freedom of choice in satisfying the temptation. Based on popular choices, top ten cuisines of the world include Chinese; French; Italian; Indian; Japanese; Moroccan; Spanish; Thai; Turkish and Indonesian dishes making their way to the customer's platter. Picking out on the line of popularity, world's most prominent food service companies include Burger King, Compass, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, Sodexho and Yum! Revealing interesting facts, statistics cite organizations like Cadbury, Coca-cola, Conagra, Danone, Kraft, Mars, Nestlé, Pepsico, Tyson, and Unilever as the world's top notch and world's largest food manufacturing companies. Top food retailers in the global scenario include Ahold, Aldi, Carrefour, Ito-Yokado, Kroger, Metro, Rewe, Schwartz, Tesco and Wal-Mart (Asda).

Chinese

Undeniably, Chinese cuisine is called as one of the tastiest methods of cooking known worldwide. Not only Chinese residents but also all others who enjoy the Chinese flavour like to gorge on an oven-roasted Beijing Duck or wheat breads or Dim Sum of Cantonese origin, seafood, pork, chicken, especially prepared Singapore-style noodle dishes and rice vermicelli noodles cooked with curry powder, shrimp, barbecued pork, ham, complete with sweet corn and hot or sour soups and Chinese tea.

French

If there is one such term that connects french verbal discourse with french cuisine invariably, it is the 'refinement'. Extremely fashionable and deliciously flavoured cuisine grand-mère or family-style cooking is one way of cooking that has flourished ignoring political boundaries. Considered as one of the world’s most elegant styles of cooking, French cuisine is known for both its classical (haute cuisine) and provincial styles.

Wide range of drinks iclude Calvados (apple brandy) and cider. Moules à la crème Normande, duck with cherries and Canard à la Rouennaise, crêpes, the delicate pancakes, Seafood fillings are also popular given Brittany 's coastal location. Carbonnade de Boeuf is another classic dish, where the beef is slowly braised in onions and beer.

What's on the Indian platter in different formats?

INDIAN FINGER FOOD:

While pit`zas and burgers with popcorn may find a lot of flavour from Indians, and across all age and income groups, the fact remains that almost all regions of the country still have their own local fast food options and outsell the 'imports' by a mile.

McDonald's and Pizza Hut can be the role models in terms of efficiency of service, hygiene, quality and overall value, but the menu should be 'Indian' – rather than Indianised versions of American food.

FAMILY DINERS or FINE DINE:

These can be based on the ubiquitous 'American dinner' concept- or even Indian versions such as Nirula's – offering Indian –style 'plated or combo' meals with table service and overall good price –value equation.

SANDWICH AND SALAD PARLOURS:

Subway's success in select locations- despite inconsistent product quality, poor scheme, and high prices – indicates the tremendous opportunity in this segment. Prêt a Manger (a UK based chain of sandwich shops, in which McDonald's has a business stake) seems like an interesting format for India.

BREAD AND BAKERY – PRODUCT OUTLETS:

As per KSA studies on eating habits of urban Indians, specialty bread and other baked products are very high on the changing preferences. The success of five-star hotel-based bakeries is among up-market. Consumers, as also of choices such as Hot Breads and Bread and More – indicate the potential in this category.

MULTI-CUISINE FOOD COURTS:

Factors like wide repertorie of cuisines, increasing want of Indian denizens, regularity in eating out activity in the country have whetted multi-cuisine food court business to grow at an alarming rate. Indian and international cuisines – located not only in the shopping malls but even standalone locations- offer exceptional opportunity.

ICE CREAMS AND JUICE/BEVERAGE PARLORS:

In this sector, there have been many start-ups and some of them such as Nirula's continue to do well. However, there is a glaring gap between the appropriate price or value need and the available options. Nirula's is largely Delhi-based and the only other choice could be Baskin Robbins.

Lack of success in the recent past for some of the starters only highlights the need for better conceptualization and execution of the format rather than a lack of market opportunity.

INDIAN 'DESSERTS' AND 'SNACK FOOD' CHAINS:

In the genre of food and food-service chains, one of the biggest opportunities is in starting national or at least regional chains, which offer Indian sweets and snacks such as pakodas and samosas. Nathu's and Haldiram 's success should certainly put away any doubt in this business. The need is a belief that this business model can be replicated (and certainly improved upon from the customer service perspective) by even large business houses such as ITC and others.

Globally successful businesses serve a good model to emulate, and these will probably succeed in India as well. However, these businesses can also be role models for efficiency, convenience, customer-friendliness and value, while the product-category offers can be based on current Indian market needs and preferences.

Quick service restaurant (QSR)

Auto Grill

(oto gril): (A modern Italian restaurant)

Automatic, quick service, freshly grilled ingredients at your services since 1996

Modern Indian restaurant offers a quality service and style, in an upscale quick service restaurant. At Auto Grill, our vision envisages providing a vast array of authentic Italian food in an urban sitting that provides the finest in quality and best in service. The menu includes and extensive selection of fresh, pasta, pit'za, delicious, appetizers, daily meat and seafood specials and spinello 'the original pit'za wrap', unique alternative to any sandwich. The quality of the cuisine is extremely important and compromised.

Since 1996, Auto Grill has been serving to its value customers modern Italian cuisine prepared using only top quality ingredients! Enjoy a wide variety of salads, appetizers and desserts, complemented by a fine selection of international wine, all in a unique, health conscious environment.

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