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In an interview with Franchise India, Benu Sehgal talks about the growth of e-commerce, the current trend in the restaurant industry and the mall gastronomy.

What is the reason that real estate is moving towards e-commerce?

There are many factors; it is like the people are becoming more computer savvy these days and the mobile have become smarter. And this is because the world is changing constantly. The trend which is available 50 years back was no longer available now. The values are different; the platforms are different from the earlier period. It is not that the people have moved, the entire business has moved to another platform there by breaking the walls of the shop.

People sitting in Gurgaon have a peak of the menu which is offered by the restaurants in Far East Delhi. So, the world of the shop has been broken and everything is available at your doorstep, on your table without facing any problem.

Real estate is about two things, the experience and the convenience. When the convenience is backed up the experience take it forward and when the experience is backed up the convenience take it forward.

How can one locate the right combination of High street, Malls & Food courts?

It always depends on what kind of outlet you are planning. If you are planning small kiosks where the kitchen size is smaller and you are not giving the experience but the taste to the clients, then I would suggest that go for the food court where small different types of cuisine is present where the group can enjoy the different cuisines at the same table. But if you are looking at some high-end experience where you want to concentrate on the same cuisine and give a better experience to your client then you can either be at a mall or in the high street. In a mall as regarding timings and charges which are very high but it depends where you have positioned your restaurant. If your restaurant is casual dining a mall is more appropriate but if your restaurant is fine-dining, I would recommend high street.

How do non-traditional locations for food service, such as hospitals, cinemas make decisions on restaurant tenancies?

It has become the necessity. When retentions happen, F&B become an integral part of planning. The hospitals become like malls. I no longer call a hospital a hospital now; it is mall which is meant for treatment of ailment. Food is an integral part; you cannot retain anybody if you cannot retain food. Most of the hospitals have certain restaurants because patients and their near ones spend the entire day on the facility. People from Middle East, Africa and the Far East come to India for treatment. So, the hospitals change their formats; they are no longer a traditional hospital but they are also looking at the convenience of the people who come from far-off places.

Talking about cinemas, when you plan a day out, distances and traffic have become so intense that when you plan a movie it has to be at a place where you can shop and eat. Wherever there is a good movie with good food, you move plan.

How do landlords view Restaurant tenants individually?

A property demands certain types of clientele. If it is a mall then the certain percentage of mall has to be food and beverage and some percentage has to be for fashion. When I am talking about mall developer, I have to allocate certain area to food and beverage because I cannot do without it and I would develop that property with restaurant in mind. I would have planned a space for kitchen, I would have a place for inlet and outlet of water; I would have place for air washer and a constant supply for fresh vegetables and fruits but this is keeping the mall aspect in mind.

Explain something about mall gastronomy?

As a developer I would like to have a small eatery plant at every 10 shops. Ideal situation would be when all the stations have a small coffee shop or a small QSR. Impulse food should be there at every 200 feet. Food not only gives you good revenue but also adds to the flavour of the mall and brings in stickiness. Not only does the area become alive but you also get a good aroma when you visit the mall that make people nibble at the food.

What is the current scenario of retail in India?

India has a very large population of young and as long as there would be people saying ‘I want & I want’, retail will be there. Only thing is one should identify the current trend of the market. The market is low that doesn’t mean you’ll die, as long as this population is there, I want, I desire will be there. The thing is you should know where to put your money and identify which business you should enter.

E-commerce is having great business over retail. Reason

The world is changing and I think that every retailer should become computer savvy and put their product online. You should identify the need and move forward. E-commerce would never take over retail but you should meet the demand of time.

Big Fish Ventures, a Delhi-based startup that runs premium dining lounges such as The Vault Café, The Junkyard Café, Café Public Connection, Indian dhaba restaurant Garam Dharam and Bandstand, has launched a mobile application for its customers.

With this app, the customers can make reservations, loyalty point redemptions and avail promotional offers at just a click.

Big Fish Ventures is planning to launch over 40 outlets across India and overseas over next 2 years. Some of the upcoming café’s are OMG – Oh My God !, Three pegs down and expansion of existing brands to other locations.

The app will cater to its 60,000 customer base who frequent their restaurants every month in a better way and plans to bring over 2 lakh customers by end of 2016.

Building Loyalty

The loyalty program is called Big Loyalty which enables a consumer to gain 5000 points on every download and subsequently on every billing and redeem them with exciting discounts, offers and deals exclusive to the app.

In the next phase they also plan to launch a wallet which will give more value add to the customer on each spend by giving them a cash back in their wallet.

The app also features a food blog which is called Big Foodie in which one can have food discussions, ask questions, exchange recipes, share experiences with top food bloggers and run contests as well.

Big Fish Ventures' move may set the trend for large multi format restaurant chains developing their own apps and eventually posing competition to the specialized dining and reservation app operators like Zomato, Dineout, Eazydiner and Reserveyourtable.

"We will bring over 2 lakh customers on our mobile app by end of 2016 and will be doing over 5000 table reservations per day by June 2016. We plan to invest over 3-4 million dollars over next 3 years," said Umang Tewari, Founder, Big Fish Ventures.

The app will be available on Google play store and Apple Store and will provide regular update its customers about promotional activities and events at the outlets operated by Big Fish Ventures.

"Most firms are focused on creating single brands with standardized formats like, for example, a McDonald's or a KFC. We are building a cluster of concept--based different brands across genres and large formats," Tewari added.

Investment

Big Fish has roped in Nishant Singhal, cofounder of Yuvraj Singh’s startup venture fund YouWeCan Ventures as its chief mentor. Singhal, who has also picked up a stake in Big Fish Venturesadvises the firm on future growth strategy.

The company aims to create, build and operate over 40 outlets by FY 17-18 under brands created by them. Big Fish plans to invest over $30 mn in building and operating outlets and will clock gross sales of over $100 mn by FY 18-19.

Big Fish will clock sales of over $10 mn in FY 15-16 and over $30 mn in FY 16-17. Big Fish currently employs over 500 people across restaurants and logistics and back-end space and will be employing over 1200 employees by March 2017.  

Seeing the great success of the Bihari themed restaurant, Potbelly in the city, Jharkhand Tourism is keen on opening a restaurant at the Jharkhand Bhawan.

Recently, Jharkhand Tourism has showcased the beautiful and intriguing attractions of the state at the Bharat Parva 2016, at the majestic Red Fort.

The Tourism, Art & Culture, Sports and Youth affairs department of Government Jharkhand has set forth an attractive agenda for the state pavilion where the state’s popular food items, its ethnic dance forms, and indigenous arts and crafts are being showcased widely from 26th-29th January.

According to Ms Suchitra Sinha, Director of Jharkhand Tourism, the department is focusing strongly on promoting tourism to the state which has several tourist attractions, scenic waterfalls, beautiful forests and a rich history. According to Ms Sinha, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das is taking taken personal interest in activities to promote tourism in the state.

Among the irresistible attractions at the state pavilion there were mouth-watering delicacies of Dhooska meat, Mutton-Jhor, Murgi Jhor, Rehu Jhor for non-vegetarian foodies to vegetarian delights like Peetha, Usna Chawal, Kurthi Dal, Chilka, Kachari, Footkal Saag, Kacchu Masala, Maduwa Roti as well as Dhooska- Barra.

The participants included dancers who were promoting the indigenous dance form Chou and artisans who have preserved the age-old traditional arts and craft forms of tribal areas.

Manpasand Beverages Ltd, has entered into a tie up with German wholesale retail and trading major, METRO Cash & Carry.

Manpasand’s flagship mango-based brand ‘Mango Sip’ and recently launched ‘Fruits Up’ will be available in all of METRO’s various outlets across India.

Manpasand Beverages operates in the packaged juice segment in India, which has grown at a CAGR of 28% over the past five years. The segment has been growing at 2 times nominal GDP growth, compared to overall FMCG market which is growing at 1.2 times nominal GDP growth according to a report by ICICI Securities.

Owing to changing lifestyle, health consciousness and rising per-capita income, the beverages manufactures in India stand to benefit further. Here are the top four reasons for the tie-up:

Expanding ‘Mango Sip’ in urban markets: As, Metro Cash & Carry is one of the widely spread supermarket across top cities in India, this tie up will facilitate the penetration of Manpasand’s flagship brand ‘Mango Sip’ into urban markets. 

Boosting growth of new brands: It will also give a boost to the recently launched ‘Fruits Up’ brand, which consists of a range of carbonated fruit drinks and premium fruit drinks in different flavours, primarily targeted at urban markets as getting on the shelf of one of the biggest supermarket can give the brand a nice attention.

Targeting the ‘Educated’ customers: Speaking about this tie-up, Dhirendra Singh, Chairman  & MD of Manpasand Beverages said, “In continuation of our urban markets expansion strategy, this is our first major tie up with an international retail brand. We have entered into this partnership to deepen our reach to potential business customers as METRO Cash & Carry works on an exclusive business-to-business wholesale concept. Mango Sip and Fruits Ups, in all existing sizes, will be available at all METRO outlets. We hope to deepen this partnership in future by offering our future range of fruit juice brands too.”

Cashing on with Metro’s expansion: India is a key market in METRO’s global expansion strategy. With modern trade on the threshold of exponential growth in India, METRO will extend its presence in existing markets by further deepening its network of customers and suppliers. The company will also expand its footprint into newer markets within the country bringing these markets the benefit of its unique wholesale concept. And, this could help Manpasand expand its reach with the international supermarket.

“Manpasand’s ‘Mango Sip’ and ‘Fruits Up’ brands will enable METRO Cash & Carry to offer quality fruit drinks to its customers at very attractive prices,” added Mr. Dhirendra Singh.

At a time when India is going though the biggest tech-disruption, industry players believe technology start-ups have the potential to innovate and solve problems, particularly at the supply end.

The industry drawn by the supply chain also wants back-end issues like cold chain infrastructure to be improved.

Experts on a panel discussion on “Real Food Start-ups” at TiEcon Delhi 2015 pointed out to the huge potential in the food space as more and more Indian consumers opt to eat out or take home deliveries. With a younger demographic, higher disposable incomes and increasing globe-trotting, consumers are ready to spend on quality food, said Ritu Dalmia, Co-owner of Diva Restaurants.

Riyaaz Amlani, MD and CEO, Impresario Entertainment shared, “high real estate costs, scarcity of skilled hospitality graduates and a complicated licensing regime continue to be big challenges.”

“The sourcing quality ingredients also remain a challenge for restaurants and FMCG players in the food space, and this expands the scope for innovative solutions. The food tech space, which is attracting substantial investments, is likely to become a bigger industry in three-four years,” added Amit Burman, Chairman, Lite bite Foods and Vice-Chairman, Dabur India.

Sharing on the same lines, Ashish Kapur, MD of The Wine Company said that food delivery services need to understand the expectations of customers and ensure that the last mile delivery experience is consistent.

Hence, with segment becoming hot in the space, where restaurants have also started participating with these players to deliver their food, these segments may overcome as the supply chain head for the food business in India.

Apart from the normal weekdays or weekends, it is the festive days that witness the reall footfall of foodies visiting online apps or calling restaurants for ordering food or snacks. Today the new trend in the restaurant industry is to offer special menu during festive seasons. In particular, for Republic Day, restaurants and many eateries create a special tricolour menu giving importance to the three colours of the national flag to engage more customers.

Offers by Start-ups

Neha Puri- Founder, Cyberchef shares “For this Republic Day, we plan to give away complimentary Indian desserts to our customers on each order-Tricolor Mousse, Phirni and Gulab Jamun. We will also keep a special main course menu, as well as featuring different regional Indian cuisines like tricolor idli with sambhar and coconut chutney.”

Likewise, Co-Founder of food pop-up Twisted Foods, Pritisha Borthakur, states, “We are still planning our menu for the Republic Day, but then I can assure that the menu will be a very traditional, full of celebrative mood dishes. Our regular menu mostly consists of the very traditional and rooted cuisines. For the Assamese pop-ups, the menu has Matir Dali (Black Lentil); Khar (An alkaline preparation with papaya), AlooBhaja (Potato Fries); AlooPitika (Mashed potato with coriander leaves, onion, green chilli), Fish Tenga (Sour fish gravy); Jalook, Aada, Nohoru Di Murgi (Chicken prepared with black pepper, ginger and garlic); MurgiKoldil Di (Chicken with banana flower); BilahiTok (tomato chutney prepared with jaggery); Til Chutney (Sesame seeds paste); MaasoPitika (Roasted mashed fish); Bengena Fry (Brinjal Fry); BhootJolokiaAchhar (Ghost Chilli Pepper) etc”. 

Marketing Creativity

Chefs are the ones who mainly take a creative route with these kinds of things and provide us with Tricolour menu. Whether it is main course, salads, soups or desserts, everywhere there is a tinge of colour. . Even the buffet will have a national colour look to it with food displayed from various states.

Restaurants also make use of advertising campaigns or marketing strategies to offer discounts on early bookings. They also redesign the menu and sometimes even revamp the whole restaurant to make it more presentable for the occasion. 

Restaurant like Mist-The Park at CP celebrates this patriotic spirit with a special offer of lunch and dinner buffet. It is a three day long Republic Day special menu to attract customers, so that they can dine with family and friends.

Some of the main dishes for the Republic Day, which restaurants are planning to serve, are Dry Fruit Saffron Biryani, Tri Colour Burfi, Pulao Rice Boondi Laddu, Saffron Rice, Free Indian Curry, Green-Orange Dotted Rice Khasta Dal Kachori and many more.

Some restaurants are bringing out their creativity in a different way. United kitchen of India, MD Kiran pointed, “We are doing a small event for limited 26 people because it is 26 January and we are calling it ‘Special 26’. We will also have Hyderabadi food and we have designed the menu, which consists of starters, main course and deserts with a different taste from the regular days”.

Celebrate this patriotic day with a special menu at your nearest restaurants.