THIS ARTICLE IS POWERED BY
-Akshay Saraswat (cbedit@imaws.org)
The opening of the National Restaurant Association of India’s (NRAI) Bhopal Chapter – in October 2023 – couldn’t have come at a better time. The capital of Madhya Pradesh (MP) is witnessing a boom in the hospitality sector and major brands are arriving thick and fast.
The swanky new ‘Bansal One’ building alongside the modern Rani Kamlapati Railway Station is set to become a fine dining hub. Brands such as Farzi Café and Raasta have already opened their outlets. But this is just one of the signs of Bhopal, and by extension – MP,increasing its profile in the restaurant industry.
In the last few years, Bhopal has seen the arrival of hotel chains such as Taj, Radisson, Lemon Tree, and Pride along with their culinary offerings. Indore, known as the gastronomical capital of the state, had already become host to some of the big names in the culinary business. Unsurprisingly, the NRAI will follow up by opening its Indore Chapter officially soon.
Abhishek Bahety, Head of the Bhopal and Indore Chapter of NRAI, discussed the goals and expectations of the organization in India’s heartland state. In an exclusive interview with Kitchen Herald, Bahety also mentioned the growth that MP has seen in its restaurant business. Here are excerpts from the conversation.
Kitchen Herald: What led the NRAI to start its Bhopal Chapter and also move towards having one for Indore?
Abhishek NRAI isa voice of the restaurant fraternity across India. It has been the voice for over five lakh restauranteurs in the country. Since 1982, the organization is working for the betterment of the fraternity.
The restaurant industry in India is currently worth more than five lakh crore annually, which contributes a good number to the GDP of the nation. Around eight million people are currently employed by the restaurant fraternity.
Of course, Madhya Pradesh has emerged as a big market in this area.And Indore, as you know, is known as the street food capital of India. But we wanted to establish the Chapter first in Bhopal because, for whatever coordination you want to do with the government and officials, you have to be in Bhopal. So, we have started from Bhopal first and will be adding one in Indore.
Indore already has many brands and restaurants and Bhopal is also coming up as a major gastronomical hub. So, we needed an established organization to support the industry and raise our voice nationally.
If you talk about the licenses required for restaurants, there are multiple areas whereNRAI deals withthe judiciary and government. We also need local support for the betterment of the industry. There are many issues with Zomato and Swiggy kind of aggregators where, if we are supported or backed by a national organization, the fraternity can be helped.
Kitchen Herald Is the NRAI looking to expand further in the coming period in Madhya Pradesh?
Abhishek NRAI will soon announce a Rest of MP Chapter, which will take forward our work for all the other cities of MP, beyond Indore and Bhopal.
Kitchen Herald: There was a time when outlets of MNC brands struggled to survive in cities like Bhopal. But things have changed in the last decade-and-a-half. How do you assess this growth as a member of the industry?
Abhishek I recall that Domino’s opened and outlet in the early 2000s in Indore but they had to close it because people were coming and asking for even laung ki sev as a topping on the pizza. So, of course, there was a challenge at that time. But later on, Domino’s gained a foothold here and other international brands came in did good business.
But I would say that there has been a substantial increase after the aggregators pumped money into the business.That has supported the food industry a lot. So, in my assessment, online ordering apps are a blessing for the food industry.
Post-COVID, especially, the trend of online ordering hasseen a major increase. This was already in practice abroad and now its common in India too.
When it comes to major brands, Indore has been the leading city in Madhya Pradesh in terms of attracting them. A lot offamous chains and franchisesopened their first outlet of MP or Central Indiain Indore.
Kitchen Herald: Apart from Bhopal and Indore, are other cities in MP, such as Gwalior or Indore, also witnessing the mushrooming of major franchise outlets?
Abhishek I would give an example of the brand which I am dealing with. I was a Business Development Agent for Subway. We opened our first outlet in Indore, then went to Bhopal. After securing substantial business in these markets, we opened outlets in Jabalpur, followed by Gwalior, Rewa, and those kinds of cities.
Going further down the ladder, in cities like Khandwa, Harda, and Ratlam, the demand may not be that high. But it’s a growing trend. Some cities don’t support that much business so you may have to withdraw from those cities.
But even Bhopal and Indore had seen a withdrawal of such brandsa few years back. So, it takes time to grow in Tier 2 or Tier 3 cities of a state.
Kitchen Herald: What about Madhya Pradesh’s own brands? Have they been able to make a splash outside the state? For instance, brands related to namkeens as that is a specialty of Indore region.
Abhishek There are over 10,000 restaurants in Indore and Bhopal, counting both the organized and unorganized sectors. And they do business of over Rs. 2,500 crore annually as a turnover. It’s a big number for these two cities.
Among brands of Madhya Pradesh, there are some which have started growing, but they are still, largely, limited to Indore or Bhopal or some cities of Madhya Pradesh, as of now. But a couple of brands, such as ‘F for Fries’ and ‘Garlic Bread’, have recently opened outlets in Bangalore.
But opening various outlets andfocusing on the franchise model is not the best idea to grow your business.That’s because for that, you need to have a better back-end operations system than your front-end operations and that is not easy to create.
It’s not that you just say that we are giving you the franchise and take the franchise fees, take the royalty, and just let the people work on their own. To become a good franchise brand, you need to have a better back-end operations system, which, in my opinion, very few brands have. A few have developed a better operational channel and we can see them growing in coming years.
Kitchen Herald: What about the regulatory framework in Madhya Pradesh and the support from the government?
Abhishek I would say it’s not bad. We had mentioned in our launch event that we’ll request the government to arrange for one-window solution to get all the licenses. NRAI has worked on it and got it in Telangana and a few other states. We have got one-window solution for all the licenses there. So, it’s our priority to request for this to be done in Madhya Pradesh.
The other area where we face a lot of challenges is related to the restrictions on playing of music that have come in recently. We would like to point out that if we have a soundproof area in clubs or restaurants, then the restrictions should not be the same as with open banquet halls or gardens.
We are also requesting that liquor license timings be extended to something like what is there in most of the other states now. With extra fees, you can get an extra 2-4 hours of your liquor license timings. That is needed because in cities like Indore and Bhopal, which are a bit laidback, the guests start coming after 9 PM usually. If a large number of brands that are coming in don’t get those business hours, they won’t survive. We are seeingmore restaurant-bar type of brands coming to Indore and Bhopal and they need support in these areas.
We are also working on requesting a 24-hour food area for Bhopal, like the AB Road in Indore. I mentioned this to the officers who were present at the launch of the Bhopal chapter. Also, today, we are launching a BBA program in Hospitality with Skill Global, AISECT University, and it’s been supported by the Tourism and Skill Development departments. This is to have good, skilled employees for our fraternity and NRAI is supporting it.
We also conducted an FSSAI training session recently for restaurant employees. This is to teach them the common norms and best practices so that theywork as per government norms.But we definitely need support from the government for a better atmosphere for business.
We are also looking to request for micro-brewery licenses.As of now, they have been restricted only to the hotels and we are requesting that they be allowed to the restaurants as well.
Kitchen Herald: Presently, how many licenses are required to start a restaurant in MP?
Abhishek: For that, you need an FSSAI license, a trade license from Nagar Nigam, an electricity certificate from the electricity board, a VAT registration, a GST registration, liquor license, as well asa PWD certificate. So, I guess 8-9 licenses and NOCs are needed. NOCs for health, fire, etc. Once that process is streamlined, it can be a big boon for the industry.
THIS ARTICLE IS POWERED BY
