Restaurant India and Franchise India group has set a benchmark with their Indian Restaurant Congress and Awards among the restaurant fraternity for building a world-class show on the business of restaurants in India. After 10 successful on-ground editions, this year the group has entered into regional markets by organizing its first show in Chennai on April 16 at Hotel Westin, Chennai.

No matter how successful your concept maybe, you have to always keep the value high. Nobody today believes in eating the same food every time he is out on the foodie's trail. You need to introduce that change, whether in terms of menu change, recipe change, design creation, or improvements in technology. Innovation needs to keep coming from one side or the other. There is no rule today where a restaurant can survive in the fast-evolving market without bringing in the new.

According to a report, India is expected to be the largest consumer market by 2030, so there will be lots of opportunities in foodservice and other businesses in India with the country being the youngest country in terms of age where the average age consumption is 20 years.

Here are the top 5 key takeaways from Restaurant India Chennai Show:-

Food safety is the New ‘Luxury’ for Hospitality Business: Restaurant industry is a very important part of the food businesses and is becoming much more diversified with the new opportunities in the market. Though comprehensive food regulation is quite new to the market, food safety should be on the top agenda for everyone at a restaurant or inside a hotel.  “When you have such a big structure one of the challenges that you faced during the pandemic is keeping it intact, the restaurants, the rooms and it takes a lot of investment to keep it in shape. Keeping the cost low and being able to maintain the product so that when we re-open we are ready to re-welcome the customers on the product front. And, what has changed now from a customer point of view is safety as it is luxury for them now,” shared Lakshmanan Ramanathan, General Manager at The Westin Chennai Velachery.

Collaboration is the Key:  In the last 2-3 years we have seen top brands partnering for growth and expanding their reach. There’s no denying that collaboration helps in a big way not only for small restaurants but also for big brands. Vishnu Shankar of Adyar Ananda Bhavan who is now the 3rd Gen in the family-run business is taught by the founders how to collaborate, and work with suppliers, employees, and landlords.  “As a brand, we believe in three things- what is the model of the operation, how to work with suppliers, landlords, and employees. If you know how to work with these three your business will never be a failure,” he added by pointing out that the pandemic has given them so many learnings as a brand as they have innovated digital and delivery space at large.

The Shorter the Menu; Larger the Profit: Indian restaurants are known to have a large menu. In the last few years restaurant menu have gone through a lot of re-tweaking and innovation. But at the same time, it is important to know how much a restaurant needs to re-engineer the menu? Commenting on the same, Chef Koushik S AKA The Mad Chef said, “The pandemic has taught us one thing that everything has become smaller, the customer base has become smaller which means if we survive with the similar profitable base we need to reduce the menu which hence reduces the manpower and infrastructure cost as well.” Restaurateurs are also of the opinion that there should be a balance between the number of items on the menu and the number of guests coming into a restaurant. “Most of the restaurants work on an 80:20 ratio which means 80 percent of the sales would come from 20 percent of the items on the menu and other 80 percent of the items on the menu will contribute only 20 percent of the sale. To simply put, cut down your menu to ideally 20 percent of what is selling,” he further added.

Raising Capital and Growth Trajectory: Restaurant industry even though it went through the worst period in the last 2 years actually from an investment perspective last 1.5 years have been the best for this industry to invest overall. From one largest listed restaurant player to now we have at least 6 players whose market cap has increased from 12-13 crore to almost one lakh crore. “Last two years have been fantastic for the industry. Also, for a restaurant to scale they need to be sure what are they building for are we building a restaurant to scale, or are we building a restaurant for an experience. It’s more mass rather than premium if you want to scale,” pointed Ashutosh Bihani, CEO, Dindigul Thalappakatti Biryani which is one of the largest biryani chains in India.  He is also of the view that when you are expanding a multi-brand strategy doesn’t work. You need to start, grow and build a brand.

Consider Your People as an Asset and not ‘Tool’: The restaurant industry is still the most unorganized sector and highest when it comes to attrition rates. In the last 2-3 years alone more than 50k people lost their job because of one or the other reason. Hence it is very important to create an atmosphere that is healthy for your staff, and people. “You need to change the workplace, the environment be it salary, food, lodging as people are looking at social security as well as a motivation to stick to company,” concluded Binod Homagai, Co-Founder at Wow! Momo recently entered into the fried chicken business with the opening of Wow! China brands.

Also, with these developments, convenience in terms of various other avenues of business- takeaway, delivery, and contactless or the digital disruption that we are seeing is another key opportunity restaurants should look into.