Franchise India Holdings Limited, in association with Bloomberg UTV, recently held the Indian Restaurant Congress 2012, the 2nd National Convention and Awards on the business of restaurants at Claridges, Suraj Kund Road, Faridabad (a Delhi-NCR). The event was presented by Mrs Bector’s promoted Cremica.
The two day convention brought together a gamut of restaurateurs, investors, consultants, technology providers, industry veterans and FMCG players from the Indian and international markets. The show saw some intriguing discussion on how the industry is expanding, the future and what are the challenges.
DAY ONE
The show was left open for the industry to come together and discuss with the introductory note by Ritu Marya, Editor-in-Chief, Franchise India. She highlighted how consumption has gone through a sea change with 60% consumers eating out once in 10 days.
The day began with unveiling of the “Indian Restaurant Report 2012” which offered ‘food for thought’ for the complete industry. The report offers industry data, forecasts and everything on how Indians eat.
The inaugural session was chaired by Niren Chaudhary, President, Yum! Restaurants India Pvt Ltd. He spoke on the immense opportunities in the market and how to come up with solutions despite challenges.
The other panellists included Navin Kumar Maini, Deputy Managing Director, SIDBI, Lucknow; Manu Anand, Chairman & CEO, Pepsi Co. India; Akshay Bector, Managing Director, Mrs Bector’s Food Specialities Ltd and Vikas Mittal, Managing Director, McCain Foods India Pvt Ltd. All the panellists were unanimous of the view that the Indian restaurant industry is all set to write its story of growth as brands work towards some critical changes, including educated and trained manpower, supply chain, food processing, expanding presence and investments opportunities.
The second session of the day talked about the anatomy of Indian consumer and how profitability is directly connected with the consumer. The speakers for this session were Pankaj Chaddah, COO, Zomato and A Madhavan, Assistant Director, FSSAI. The session emphasised on understanding the eating out trends, need to profile consumers’ needs, filling out the gap in institutional catering services in India, loyalty building spend keeping the consumer coming back for more and take on strengthening food safety quality. Madhavan talked about the Food Safety and Security Act of India.
The third session discussed how high volume business should be positioned and had speakers including Rahul Akerkar, Managing Director & Director Cuisine, Degustibus Hospitality Pvt Ltd of Indigo fame; Shiv Karan Singh, Director, Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality Pvt Ltd; Saurabh Khanijo, Director, Welgrow Hotel Concepts Pvt. Ltd. (Kylin) and Vikas Arora, Executive Director, Precious Hospitality & Leisures Pvt. Ltd. The panel was upbeat on bringing in best practices to the industry and additional revenues which could flow in with home deliveries and catering.
Sunil Kapur, the well-known restaurenteur, came to the dais and talked about how everybody makes mistakes, but learning and innovating from those mistakes is the key. He expressed his confidence in the unique market proposition of the Indian culinary.
A key note session was given by Rod Young, Managing Director, DC Strategy, Australia. He talked about how restaurants, whether national or international, need to raise the bar. “
The fourth session, chaired by Samir Kuckreja, President, National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) and Founder & CEO, Tasanaya Hospitality Pvt Ltd threw light on the ways to access capital for the business. The speakers in this discussion were Padmaja Ruparel, President, Indian Angel Network; Hemendra Mathur, Managing Director, SEAF India Investment Advisors; Sandeep Kohli, Sr. Advisor, TVS Capital Funds Ltd; Siddharth Lal, Sr. Vice President, Rabo Equity Advisors; and Seema Jhingan, Senior Partner, Lex Counsel Law Offices.
+The fifth session revolved around enabling and motivating franchise growth and was chaired by Rod Young. The other speakers on the dais were Manmohan Kohli, Owner, Hotel Aroma Vikram; Rajeev Panjwani, CEO, Travel Food Services; James R. Walker, Chief Development Officer, Brass Tap, USA; Shivshankar R, Director, Barista Lavazza and Pravin Juneja, Managing Director, South Asian Hospitality Services Pvt Ltd. The speakers discussed the business opportunities in the franchised model of restaurant industry.
The last session of the day talked about one of the biggest challenges of the industry, ie, human resources. The topic of discussion was blueprint for building a talent pool, developing a work ethic in the restaurant workplace. Chaired by Alok Shivapuri, Principal, Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa, the speakers of this session were Ranjan Choudhury, Head Principal - Programme Development, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC); Deepak Behl, Chief People Officer, The Kwality Group; Venkataram Girish, Sr VP - Human Resources, Jubilant Foodworks Ltd; and Ajay Khanna, Sr. VP-Hospitality Business, Team Lease Services Pvt Ltd. All the panellists stressed on the importance of motivation to elicit the best of performance.
DAY TWO
The opening session of day two was on chain restaurant strategic planning – regional vs. national business growth plan. It kick-started with the keynote session by Samir Kuckreja, President, NRAI and Founder & CEO, Tasanaya Hospitality Pvt Ltd. Being a veteran of the industry, he talked about the key ingredients of becoming a restaurant chain. The session later had speakers including R Kumar, Chairman & Managing Director, Continental Equipment India Pvt Ltd; Manu Mohindra, Managing Director, Under One Roof Consultants Pvt Ltd; Vijay Abhimanyu, Managing Director, Billion Smiles Hospitality Pvt Ltd; Gokul Krishna, CEO, Cada-Designs Pvt Ltd, and Tanmay Kumar, Director-Business Development, Yum! Restaurants India Pvt. Ltd.
The second keynote of the day came from Tapan Vaidya, General Manager- Asia Pacific Region, The Jawad Business Group, UAE, as he talked about building a restaurant chain – a recipe of success.
The second session talked about internationalising business and looking beyond boundaries. The session was chaired by Tony White, Regional General Manager -Gloria Jeans Coffee, Australia and had speakers including Manish Mehrotra, Executive Chef, Old World Hospitality; Mir Mazharuddin, MD, Hyderabad House Pvt Ltd and Rahul Kumar, CEO, Red Mango.
A keynote was given by Jonathan Jordan, President, Global Change Management, Inc., USA who talked about the new age leadership realities – vantage points of inspiration.
The third session of the day was dedicated to technology where in Ashish Tulsian, Co- Founder & CEO, POSist Technologies Pvt Ltd, discussed about how technology will be one of the integral growth drivers and brings in greater consumer satisfaction.
The fourth session, headed by Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Crazeal.com (of GROUPON Inc.), talked about how to reach to consumers and market the brand right. The speakers for this session were Anil Bhandari, Chairman, AB Smart Concepts; Saurabh Sengupta, Head of Operations, Zomato; Bhaskar S, Co-founder, Amagi; Sunil Kallerackal, Founder & Chairman, Book your Table; and Amit Kohli, Managing Director & Co-Founder, Food Panda.
With the fifth and the last session of the day, the focus shifted to location of the restaurants. Moderated by Ankur Bisen of Technopak Advisors, the speakers on stage were Deepti Goel, Vice President- Retail, Ambience Mall; Yogeshwar Sharma, Director, Select Citywalk; and Ritu Chaudhry, Vice President-Marketing & Operations, Nirula’s.
The two-day long Indian Restaurant Congress 2012 came to an end with the suggestions from the delegates and a closing note from Ritu Marya.
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