Cooking up growth!
Cooking up growth!

The second day of the Entrepreneurship Summit 2014 organised by Franchise India Holdings Ltd at Pragati Maidan on 12th October, 2014 witnessed eminent speakers sharing their business insights on the taste of the food business in India with franchising opportunity taking the lead.

The size of the food services market in India is estimated at $48 billion in 2013 which is projected to grow at a CAGR of 11 per cent over the next five years to reach $78 billion by 2018, according to the NRAI report.

The panellists in the session were optimistic about the further growth of the industry and they highlighted different growth factors of the Indian food business such as – how to prepare a food exceptionally good in taste? How QSRs are changing their food palate for the Indian customer? Localisation of menu according to the demography and the reasons why foreign restaurant chains are successful in India were a few talking points of the panel discussion.

The event brought industry people on a single platform highlighting the growth opportunities in food and retail business in the country. The panel included Dheeraj Gupta, MD, Jumboking Foods Pvt Ltd, Deval Tibrewalla, CEO & Director, Polo Foods, Varun Goyal, Owner, Milkyway and Sam Chopra, Chairman, CybizCorp which has signed a master franchisee deal with Carl’s Jr to make India foray.

The interactive session was moderated by Ritu Marya, Editor-in-Chief, Franchise India highlighting the fact that the consumer has become very trendy and aspirational these days and this has led the brands to respond to them appropriately.

Discussing on the food business, Tibrewalla says, “I believe food business is not a business for introverts, The owner has to interact and speak to every customer personally. He should be a person who has a love for favours.”

Gupta, stressed that the availability of brands in prime location is very important and the brands should rise above taste in the food business. At the same time he shares that there are three models apt for franchising business – the service element should be lower, the product should be standardised and should not require a high degree of skill, and business margins should be such that the franchisee makes a margin higher than he would had he done the business himself.

The panellists also discussed points on deciding and localising the menu. “How much to localise and how much not to remain a question for restaurateurs,” believes, Chopra. He also asserts that improvisation in American food with Indian stuff is not long run in the food business.

Sharing more insights on the franchise owned model, Gupta says, “One has to put his full time in the business. No loan on a personal note and also some prior experience of running a business will lead to a good franchisor.”

Varun Goyal, Owner, Milkyway, which recently signed a franchise deal with FranCorp to expand its operation pan India says, “For any business to grow, one has to be a customer himself. Franchising is all about expansion and evolvement of the brand.”

Concluding the session, the panellists’ were of the view that localisation with little tweak in the menu along with keeping the authenticity is the need of the hour.

 
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