Italian Tops Home Delivery Food Choices; Pizza Hut, Yo! China & Nirula's Hot Favourites in Foodpanda.in Survey

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

MAMA MIA, North India is

Rohit Chadda, Co-Founder and Managing Director,
Foodpanda.in, says the survey results reflect the
cosmopolitan food choices of the website's
youth market-driven demographic 

saying 'bye, bye' to Chinese and going 'bhai, bhai' with Italian. Sounds impossible? You may have thought Indian and Chinese are the hottest favourites of the North Indian dining market, but 44.8 per cent of those who order home-delivered meals through Foodpanda.in, a Rocket Internet-incubated website operating in 40 countries across four continents, prefer Italian over Chinese, Punjabi and fast food.

Surprisingly, though, Chinese has a 27.6 per cent following, but Punjabi has slipped to as low as 6.2 per cent. The survey report doesn't give the percentage for fast food, but if you do the math, it ranks a healthy third with 21.4 per cent.

That seems highly likely in the light of the fact that Nirula's is the restaurant franchise that ranks third in popularity among Foodpanda.in users after Pizza Hut (whose thin crust and cheesy pizzas top the list of favourites) and Yo! China, a chain of popular Chinese restaurants with a strong takeaway business promoted by Ashish Kapur, Ajay Saini and Joydeep Singh.

Finding the survey results a bit hard to stomach, for they flew in the face of conventional wisdom, I called up Rohit Chadda, the young co-founder and managing director of Foodpanda.in. He was quick to point that 60 per cent of 50,000-60,000 unique visitors that the website belong to the 25-35 age group, and an equal percentage of them are from Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore. He did not divulge the actual number of orders placed by these visitors to the website.

"Our survey results reflect the cosmopolitan nature of the taste buds of our demographic, which is essentially the youth market in the three big metros," Chadda said. Pizzas are most popular, he added, because they are "faster to deliver and easier to eat". Yo! China's Yo Boxes are also "very popular" because they are "very affordable" and offer "very good quality". The Foodpanda.in demographic clearly seeks out both affordability and quality.

With a sizeable segment of urban India, especially the young, living away from home, the takeaway and home delivery market is booming. Chadda said that whereas organised food retail grew by 20-25 per cent in 2012, the takeaway and home delivery segment rose by 40 per cent. He estimated that the segment has grown to become a Rs 1,000-crore business nationally and is poised to expand to up to Rs 6,000 crore by 2017.

"The takeaway and home delivery model offers convenience to customers because the food comes cheaper and 5-6 per cent higher margins to restaurant chains because of the reduced overhead costs," Chadda said. Unsurprisingly, significant players in the industry such as Anjan Chatterjee's Speciality Restaurants (the holding company of Mainland China) and Amit Burman and Rohit Aggarwal-promoted Lite Bite Foods are driving their takeaway and home delivery business. Even an established brand such as Kabir Advani's Berco's is popularising a hybrid growth model -- smaller restaurants with 40-50 covers and a sharp focus on home delivery. For long, we have been accustomed to a 'ghar bhijwa dena' relationship with our friendly neighbourhood kirana store. Restaurants are now getting to hear these familiar words and it's music to their ears.

Samir Kuckreja Re-Elected NRAI Prez in a Year of Challenges and Success

By Sourish Bhattacharyya

SAMIR KUCKREJA, the suave and articulate former CEO and MD of Nirula’s who now runs his own consultancy company, Tasanaya Hospitality, was re-elected president of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) at its 31st annual general meeting (AGM) in New Delhi on Tuesday, September 24.

Samir Kuckreja gets another
term as NRAI president

Manpreet Gulri, Development Agent and Country Head, Subway Systems India, and Riyaaz Amlani, MD, Impresario Entertainment and Hospitality, more famous as the man behind Mocha and Smokehouse Grill, were vice-presidents. Established local restaurateurs Kabir Advani (Berco’s) and Manpreet Singh (Zen and Tao) were voted treasurer and secretary respectively of the national body, which is now in its 31st year, and has 1,200-plus members across 20 cities.

NRAI was in the news for two good reasons this year. The first was its victory in the Delhi High Court, thanks mainly to the persuasive arguments of Lalit Bhasin, in the case that saw the honourable judges uphold the contention that herbal hookahs didn’t come under the purview of the Control of Tobacco Products Act. The second, and in my opinion the more commendable achievement, was the release of the India Food Services Report 2013, which effectively highlighted the economic contributions of the restaurant industry and made the government sit up and take note of the fact.

The report, which was released by Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma earlier this year, reported that the contribution made by the restaurant industry to the country’s GDP was almost seven times more than the hotel sector. The industry, whose total turnover is pegged at INR 247,680 crore, is said to be expanding at 11 per cent and is projected to scale to INR 408,040 crore by 2018.

Of this vast pie, the organised segment controls 30 per cent of the business, which works out to INR 67,995 crore, and if it maintains a steady combined average growth rate (CAGR) of 16 per cent, it can reach INR 145,770 crore by 2018. A people intensive industry, restaurants provide direct employment to 5 million people and indirectly provide jobs to another 7-8 million.

That the government has started taking the NRAI as a serious advocacy group is apparent from the trade body’s inclusion as a key partner in an inter-ministerial group set up by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. In Maharashtra, too, the NRAI is represented on the committee that the Chief Secretary has set up to examine various issues raised by the association and to simplify licensing procedures in the state. It has also been working closely with the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Looking ahead, Kuckreja said in an interview with Indian Restaurant Spy that the association will address the “big challenge” of training the frontline staff. The NRAI has tied up with the IL&FS Skills Development Corporation to drive this effort, which is on top of the association’s agenda, apart from growing its membership and opening new chapters (at present, it has active chapters only in Mumbai and Bangalore). “This is important because the issues confronting the industry are largely local,” Kuckreja said, adding that the association will continue to be a leader in government advocacy.

The AGM also elected a new managing committee, which comprises: Ajay Kaul, CEO, Jubilant FoodWorks (Domino’s); Amit Jatia, Vice Chairman, Hardcastle Restaurants (McDonald’s India-West and South); Gaurav Jain, MD, RTC Restaurants India (Ruby Bar and Grill); Jay Singh, Co-Founder and Executive Director, JSM Corporation (Hard Rock Café and Shiro); Monish Gujral, MD, Moti Mahal Deluxe Tandoori Trail; Niren Chaudhary, MD, Yum Restaurants India (Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell); Rahul Singh, Coach and Founder, Beer Café; Rohan Jetley, VP, Bistro Hospitality (TGIF); Sandeep Anand Goyle, CEO, Essex Farms; Sanjay Coutinho, CEO, Baskin Robbins; Santosh Jindal, Director, Jade Garden Restaurant; Sunil Lamba, MD, Kwality Group; Tarsillo Nataloni, Director, Flavors; Vipin Luthra, Chairman & MD, The Palms Town and Country Club; Vyoum Ghai, Director, Suribachi and Buzz.