What’s the secret ingredient behind a
Product standardisation or rather taste standardisation, staff training and controlled recipe units, automation technology, need marketing planning and strategy for social media and digital marketing platforms and a profitable business model will help better scalability.
With the food and beverage industry finding its footing once again, it’s not news that brands are focusing a lot on pan-India expansions. It’s especially true in the case of QSRs and cloud-kitchen chains; they tend to draw aggressive expansion plans as customers return and sales increase in the post-Covid era. But putting a system that caters to various new locations in place is not cakewalk. Zorawar Kalra, managing director of Massive Restaurants feels that for an established brand, it is much easier to plan expansion on go live in multiple locations. However, it takes a lot of planning, logistics and digital team strength to grow across India. “One needs to have an Incredible digital marketing and high level of audits to track the operations. We open four to six stores together in each city to get the maximum impact,” he commented.
According to him, the unit economics of cloud business is easier to manage and are at par from high performing restaurants as the ROC is much higher for any cloud kitchen business. “Along with the strong audit system in place, there should be a strong project system because one can centralise the food but if there are no strong logistics the consistency issue will hamper the business,” he added.
“Knowing the market share we need a team, equipment, consistent product taste and great looking stores with outstanding ambience and consumer service experience business need investments in regards to debt or equity and individual franchise owners considering we follow the FOCO (franchisee owned company operated) model,” Hanish Suri, COO at Wok On Fire commented.
Sharing his checklist, product standardisation or rather taste standardisation, staff training and controlled recipe units, automation technology, need marketing planning and strategy for social media and digital marketing platforms and a profitable business model will help better scalability.
For brands such as Pabrai’s production capacities to feed all regions/cities/outlets pan India becomes of utmost importance. Pabrai's new production facility is under construction and should be ready by March 2023. Presently the company uses about 45 percent of its capacity on average. The idea is to not allow a situation to develop where the market has expanded but materials are not available at new regions/cities/outlets.
“Logistical capability to ensure that not only finished goods but also raw materials, packing materials and consumables are seamlessly available at every outlet. It's a tough job to organise logistical support. In our case, being a perishable product with limited storage options (storage is limited to cold storage capacity at city levels) it is an even more complex task,” added Anuvrat Pabrai, head of Pabrai's Fresh and Naturelle ice creams.
The financials work differently for each brand and product category. Some product categories require production and related functions to be organised at the local level. For instance, a chain like Wow Momo would require multiple outlets in every city they launch in since they have to set up a kitchen and front end and back-end teams in every city they launch in and it is viable for them to launch in a new city only if they have multiple outlets opening simultaneously at launch time or else it may be unviable to operate.
“At Pabrai's, our operations are so planned that it is possible to be profitable with even a single outlet in a city. Of course, it helps to have multiple outlets within a city and is more profitable,” Pabrai further informed.
For Abdullah Khan, founder and CEO of Fishlee, right recruitment also helps in keeping the business sustained in multiple cities. “You must develop a unique concept and provide superior customer service in terms of food variety, quality, delivery time, and ambience,” he said.
