The fifth annual Indian Restaurant Congress held in New Delhi recently focused on the current wave affecting the growth of the sector
With many new food players entering the unicorn club, the fifth annual Indian Restaurant Congress themed ‘Disruption’ discussed all related topics behind this wave. The conference was held recently at JW Marriott, New Delhi. Over 500 restaurateurs and 100 restaurant industry leaders and chefs attended the congress. Commenting on the event, Gaurav Marya, chairman, Franchise India, said, “Restaurant and food service is the only industry, which has benefitted on the back of e-commerce onslaught in India. Three important elements for the industry to achieve are scalability, consistency and profitability in the disruptive brands and business models. It is necessary to distinguish between fads and more enduring consumer mega trends.”
The Indian Restaurant Congress 2015 was chaired by Sunil Kapur, chairman, K Group, who at the inaugural session, said, “Restaurant business is all about partnerships and relationships. The constant change with lots of innovation along with recipe recreation, menu tweaking, adaptation of trendy design and technology is a must for continuous growth in this business as eating out is a way of life and not just an occasional treat.”
The international guest of honour, Enam Ali, founder, Le Raj, The British Curry Awards and representing the interests of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Asian countries’ restaurant leadership in UK was present on the occasion and shared the issue of shortage of Indian curry chefs in UK, for which the industry has made a special request to the UK government to bring flexibility in immigration laws, as it will allow the industry to fulfill the demand, which is under threat of talent shortage.
Interesting sessions
Bizruption (business disruption) within the restaurant industry, was the highest talk point of the conference, which is targeting a growth of CAGR 17 per cent annually followed by Youngruption (young consumer disruption), where 50 per cent of the people eat outside at least eight times a month and Techruption (digital disruption) is piping hot with food-tech players getting a thumps up.
Addressing the audience with an overview of the restaurant and food industry, Riyaaz Amlani, president, National Restaurant Association of India and MD, Impressario Hospitality added, “We’re on the verge of our own renaissance. In terms of size – we’re bigger than the telecom and Bollywood industry and is only second to insurance and retail. The organised market is slated to be worth Rs 167,000 crore by 2018, which makes it all the more exciting to be a part of this industry right now. There are challenges acting as hurdles for aspiring restaurateurs, the biggest being government and regulatory issues. Many rules and regulations related to licensing, permissible drinking age, use of open spaces, etc, are archaic and don’t make sense today and need to be addressed immediately.”
Leading investors present at the event spoke on the need for capital raising in the industry to which Rahul Rai of Rabo Equity added, “Investment in the food business is part of the larger theme. There has been almost US$ five million investment in five years in the food business alone. And in India about 30 companies have got investment in the last five to six years.”
Foodruption (food disruption) was discussed by top chefs led by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Chef Vicky Ratnani, culinary director, celebrity chef and author, and Chef Manish Mehrotra, celebrity chef and corporate chef – luxury dining, Old World Hospitality. Chef Kapoor lamented, “The restaurant business has been consistent in my view though the return ratio is not attractive because the money, the everyday effort that you put into this business doesn’t bring you a fruitful result always. However, I believe, efficiency in the business is the need of the hour.”
Technology disruption was discussed by top young restaurant entrepreneurs and leading technocrats including Alok Jain, founder, Yumist; Mohit Sharma, founder and CEO, Romio Technologies; Vivek Kapoor, co-founder, Dineout; Arpit Agarwal, co-founder, OneLoyalCard and director, Globe Capital Market; Mohit Kumar, CEO and co-founder, Roadrunnr; Manish Agarwal, CEO, Gati Kausar; Kapil Malhotra, founder and MD, Total Solutions Group of Companies; Vaibav Kumaravel, partner, The Chinese Story; among others.
Speaking on the subject of western brands unfolding its success in India, Ashish Saxena, executive director and CEO, Tex Mex Cuisine India (Chili’s – South and West India) stated, “There is a big opportunity for casual dining and fast casual chains in India with brands like TGIF, Chili’s, Wendy’s amongst others heating up the restaurant industry. Though the opportunity is very huge at this point of time, we as a brand have grown slowly in the last few years.”