Various restaurants have chosen the home delivery model to stay in business with social distancing norms being in place.
“No doubt the Pandemic has shaken the confidence of one and all – rich or poor, businessman or employed. We feel that a lot of people may be apprehensive to step out so we are working on takeaway and home delivery model as we foresee these as the demand of the near future. We are trying to keep everyone in a positive state of mind and keeping them informed about the difficulty that the industry is facing.
Since employees are such an important part of the restaurant experience, most of our employees are home-bound following the lock down. However, we are constantly in touch with them, keeping them motivated and uplifting their spirits in these incredibly dark times. We are using this time to ensure our resources are all channelized towards awareness and education of the best practices of hygiene and well being as well as immunity building for associates and guests through a thoughtful menu by procuring fresh and local produce.
During the last several years, humanity has seen many pandemics, ups and downs, but the food & beverage business has always grown upwards. We will have to focus on daily hygiene protocols that would be followed by the staff with a supervisor to monitor the protocols. With social distancing being of utmost importance, crowding should be avoided at all costs and eateries should be managed effectively by planning proper spacing in the dining area. If such measures are followed, we can be pretty confident of a timely revamp of the industry” – Amey Naik, PEEP Kitchen
“The current global pandemic has drastically affected our business. After keeping all our outlets shut for the first 21 days of the lockdown, we have had to open 3 outlets around Goa due to lack of business. With customers having minimal spending power and elevated levels of cautiousness, we have had to face various difficulties such as paying off liabilities like rent, loans, paying staff wages and salaries. Also, overheads have been shooting up with no relief coming in from the side of the authorities.
Our strategy for now is to survive this phase keeping overheads in check. So far, our patrons have been extremely kind, loyal and supportive by providing us with their regular orders and hopefully the situation will get better. At the Tato Group, we would like to urge readers and customers to support all their neighbourhood eateries and help them survive during this difficult time.
We assure our customers that we are taking all necessary precautions as per the guidelines laid down by WHO and doing the best we can to satisfy our customers with nothing but the best experience!” – Pranav and Saurabh Dhuri, Cafe Tato
“The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly affected most businesses in some or the other way creating absolute chaos. Catering related businesses such as ours will probably be one of the last businesses to settle as it demands large gathering of people and with social distancing being the prime necessity right now, such gatherings are nearly impossible.
The catering industry banks mainly on wedding seasons. However, with the outbreak of this virus, most of the functions stand cancelled thus leaving us with no choice but to return the advances taken from customers. This in turn has caused huge losses to revenue generation.
Although there is almost no business and everything is at halt, life has to go on! Thus, in order to keep the business running, we have started with the system of home deliveries by keeping all the requisite safety and hygiene standards in mind.
We have kept the menu simple so that preparation struggle becomes manageable. Work is done with lesser staff so hygiene and social distancing is easy. Although profits have hit a low point, we are so far able to sustain our staff with whatever revenue is generated” – 20 Amoncar Classic Catering Services Pvt Ltd
“Business is affected adversely but we are holding staff who we are taking care of. We have started with home deliveries and are doing quite well there. As far as hygiene is concerned, we have our safety standards in place with sanitized kitchens which we have been practicing for almost 20 years. We are also tied up with one of the country’s best hospitality sanitization product company for many years, which our customers are aware of – and this is now paying us rich dividends. The toughest challenge is to keep your staff in good spirits and to control the pricing as the cost of almost every ingredient has gone up by 50 percent after lockdown, and of course, to persuade and communicate that coming to us or ordering from us is the best option. As diners are thriftier than they were last month, with worries about their incomes and additional expenses we are trying to give additional benefits to the customers who are ordering by putting up posts on social media like Facebook and try to stay connected. It’s working at a moderate percentage and with time I feel it will work,” says Atul Shah of Spice Goa – Atul Shah, Spice Goa
“Immediate revenues have fallen 100% during lockdown. Our customers have been very sympathetic to our problems and support us with home delivery orders every few days which has been a big help. Cash flow is severely affected since there is zero to minimal revenue coming into the business but expenses haven’t gone down by as much. Even post lockdown this industry will take a long time to recover, so many restaurants are thinking of keeping their operations closed even post lockdown as it costs more just to stay open with staff and overheads including rent and utilities. We revised our financial forecasts for the year and developed new strategies and re-planned the entire business model. We are investing in online technology and online marketing of our products. We have redesigned our menu to suit home delivery model. We are seeing decent results in terms of efficiency. Our operations have become leaner with a possibility for scalability in the future. Use this pandemic as an opportunity to re-think, re-invent your business and learn from it. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If you can survive this, you will come out stronger, leaner, and definitely more efficient! Conserve your resources and plan for the long haul and not short term. Do not get bogged down by challenges rather meet them with positive attitude and business sense. Stop all wasteful expenditure and invest in technologies and lastly support your team members in whatever way you can, especially those who are high performers, motivated and loyal” – Prahlad Sukhtankar, Black Sheep Bistro
