Diversification, dynamic offering which is ruled by an omnichannel presence is going to be the new curve for the F&B industry.
Mumbai: Palates are changing, so is the demand to try something new and Vikram Bakshi, CEO & MD, Ascot Hospitality while moderating the inaugural session on Thursday, the second and final day at the India Food Forum 2022.
He laid out the idea of the changing food and beverages (F&B) landscape and probed the esteemed panellists for the session to speak on how they are growing their business by keeping the customer needs at the centre.
“Along with travel and tourism, the HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and caterers) segment was hit the hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic. And some things changed dramatically, perhaps forever. The biggest shift has been in consumer behaviour and expectations,” he said. “While the revival in Indian food service has been extremely uplifting, some new challenges have come to the fore. For instance, much like entertainment, foodservice is increasingly becoming an on-demand consumer activity. New-age delivery models are raising questions on profitability and restaurant business models. Food and beverage brands are buying out restaurants.”
Riyaaz Amlani, CEO & MD, Impresario set a positive tone for the session by acknowledging that there is no one to scale a business in the food service industry. “The beauty of our industry is that we can take any route to grow, but everything should be focused on the industry and its dynamics. The customer now, more than before is demanding better experiences and meaningful food variety. This gives us an opportunity to diversify meaningfully riding on the customer demands and keeping it at the centre stage. For us the main vehicle of growth is social media. And we are speaking to the customer a lot across our social channels to set the right conversation and woo them to try our services”.
What started with Mocha, is today a full-fledged 38-restaurant chain for Impresario and the company is ready to roll out 12 more in the near future.
Keeping the conversation focused on the customers and their new trends and behaviours, Zorawar Kalra, Founder & MD, of Massive Restaurants highlighted, “All our offerings are put out on diverse price tags. We are completely focused on the customer and that’s how we maintain our diverse capabilities without any disruption. We are possessed with offering the right warmth and cuisines to our customers, but never at an extravagant price tag”.
Keeping the conversation alive while highlighting the trends to watch out for Biplab Chakraborty, head of investments, at Rebel Foods mentioned, “We believe that retail presence is going be the moment of truth for our industry. Customers will want to go back to the store to experience and the idea of just delivery is not going to be sticky for long, at least for the food service industry”.
Diversification, dynamic offering which is ruled by an omnichannel presence is going to be the new curve for the F&B industry. So, Sagar Daryani, Founder & CEO, Wow! Momo in this context explained, “We have cracked the matchbox store format. To match the rent to the ROI we want to continue maintaining the small store format for our diverse offerings. We are only focused on single-store formats for our 3 branches of WOW. For the first time, we are bringing in all 3 of our stores WOW China, WOW Chicken, and WOW Momo in one of our bigger store formats. But this is an exception and we do not want to bring all 3 brands under one roof, but keep them separate and distinct to continue attracting the right customer base and attract the right ROI.”
The other panellists for this session were Anurag Katriar, Founder, of Indigo Hospitality and Nitin Motwani, CBO, Culinary Brands (Everstone Group). This session was taken to the stage at the 15th edition of India Food Forum 2022, the mega congregation of India’s emeriti of the Food Retail establishment at The Westin Mumbai, Powai Lake on December 7-8, 2022.
