"INDIAN" FAST FOODS- NEED FOR A NATIONAL NET WORK

India is blessed with hundreds of thousands of small eateries working across the country serving millions of people every day and due to their low visibility they are rarely counted with the national census failing to generate any realistic data about them. The classical viability factors do not apply to their operations because there are eating joints serving hardly a few dozen customers in some of the remote areas in the country with annual turnover not even crossing Ra 10000! The fact that they are still surviving speaks volume about their resilience and expectations. Probably some of them are being run to supplement family income and are managed by the house wives in their own kiosks, either part of their house or nearby. Beyond this category there are also small scale regular restaurants serving limited variety of foods for satisfying the local clientele with minimum investments and facilities. Those earning more than Rs 100,000 per year and beyond are mostly located in Tier I, II and III cities. There are no accurate statistics regarding the number of restaurants in the organized sector working under the license system that prevails in the country but a fair guesstimate would place it at over a million making it a strong player in the business landscape of the country.

Why is that new entrants in the catering sector popularly referred as fast food companies are receiving so much attention while their desi counterparts existing in this country for decades continue to be neglected? How is that no domestic investors are interested in establishing purely Indian fast food network that can compete with those originating from outside the country? Why not the Reliance or the Tatas or the Bharti or the Godrej or other industry giants take interest in knitting together a national chain that can offer ethnic foods to millions of Indian customers who cannot appreciate Hot Dogs or Burgers or other types of western foods popular with educated and foriegn-exposed youngsters? There can even be new entrepreneurial interest in this area if adequate technical back up is forthcoming for converting the ethnic foods into formats that can be served and consumed easily. Classical examples of Taco Bell, Chipotle, Pizza Hut, Barista, KFC, McDonalds all successful players in western fast food category should provide sufficient motivation to Indian investors to enter this sector. Entrepreneurial spirit, wherever it is manifested must be applauded. There are many lucky inheritors of industrial empires and building on what is inherited is also some thing deserving admiration. In the catering sector there are many corporate ventures which are shining examples of excellent managerial competence and far sighted vision. Chipotle, the restaurant chain that specializes in Mexican foods, is one of the marvels of modern era as it has been able to carve out for itself a significant clientele base in the US and spread its wings beyond the borders. It recently celebrated the opening of its 1000th restaurant which is not a small achievement measured by any yardstick. The saga of this 17 year wonder can be an excellent model for any new entrepreneurs wishing to be counted amongst the big business players. With annual turn over of more than $ 126 million and employing about 22000 people Chipotle is a model that can be emulated in India.

Since opening the first restaurant in 1993 Chipotle was able to achieve many milestones in its brief existence. Their USPs include serving naturally raised meat (from animals that are raised in a humane way, never given antibiotics or added hormone and fed a pure vegetarian diet), the first to commit to local and organically grown produce, and the first to serve dairy (cheese and sour cream) made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). Its focus has been on making great tasting food with more sustainably raised ingredients available and affordable for everyone making customers coming back repeatedly. With such credentials success is more less assured and that is what required for any successful venture aiming for a pan India foot prints.

One of the reasons for lack of entrepreneurial interest in taking up business ventures based on Indian foods could be lack of standardization of some of the foods and their unsuitability for "packing and presentation" similar to Burrito or Qesadia or Hot Dogs or Burger. Masala dosa can be redone with the dosa part being used as the shell and the vegetable based fillings forming the content, resembling the Burrito. Similarly mini idlis in a bowl with chutney and sambar in small disposable containers along with bites of toasted papad can be another quick serving item. There are hundreds of such foods popular in India and they can be easily transformed into ready to eat fast foods.

Added to this is the clear segmentation of the consumers into vegetarian and non vegetarian camps requiring separate preparation facilities involving higher investment. The growth of the Cafe Coffee Day chain and its impact on the consumer attitude do indicate that there is a clientele that will readily welcome innovative catering services with an eye on ambiance and good quality foods. What is needed in India is thousands of such branded food chains offering products like dosa, idli, vada, pakoda, stuffed parotha etc in a quick biting format that can be eaten on the spot or carry home for family consumption. Probably there can be food chains with distinct Indian names that can associate the products served with commonly consumed foods in the country.

Already there are many retail chains working with a pan national foot print and they can earmark a portion of their outlets for setting up fast food joints. Similarly the major fuel companies with thousands of fuel stations across the country can usher in a fast food revolution through business alliance with some of the catering majors for setting up outlets in their premises. Raiways can also can be roped in for launching a series of uniformly formatted fast food outlets. Indian consumers, especially the youngsters, have a better chance of bonding with their heritage foods through such modernized traditional foods accessible easily and mofified to suit their life style.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

INDIAN FOODS-OUT TO CONQUER THE WORLD?

Indian ethnic foods were never able to capture global attention compared to others like those from China, Mexico or Japan. One of the major reasons could be the 'reputation' these foods enjoy as strongly spiced because of liberal use of cumin, coriander, turmeric, chilli, ginger. black pepper, fenugreek etc in most of the preparations. For long, restaurants serving Indian foods in countries like the US were patronized mostly by immigrant population from India and other South Asian countries,with a just sprinkling of local customers. The UK where there is a substantial population of Indian origin, boasts of hundreds of Indian restaurants where both immigrants as well as the local people frequent making such joints economically viable. Long colonial history that had forged some cultural ties with the UK could be responsible for the popularity of Indian foods in that country. In sheer variety, ethnic foods of India have the unique position unrivaled by any other country in the world. Though curry preparations are invariably associated with India, there are thousands of others crying for attention. In the area of snacks and sweetmeats, some of the varieties made by traditional artisans or 'halwais' can beat many confectionery and savory snacks of the west from sensory angle. If these food products have not crossed the national boundaries and could not make any international impact, blame must go to the industry for not trying harder and the indigenous food scientists for not providing timely research support to standardize, stabilize and mechanize the production during the last 5 decades. According to a rough estimate there are more than 5000 traditional food preparations of Indian origin and most of them have limited shelf life. Their quality is not uniform with the sensory perception varying over a wide range. Almost all of them are manually produced with hardly a dozen products being made by well designed large scale machinery. Any hand-made food will be naturally viewed with suspicion regarding its microbial quality, especially by the western consumers. New opportunities emerged after the Retort Pouch Technology was first developed by the Defense Lab at Mysore which can keep many Indian ethnic foods stable and safe for at least 6-12 months and in some cases even up to 2 years. Large scale exports of these foods to the US, Canada, Australia, Europe and other parts of the world enabled them to be part and parcel of the large grocery chains with high visibility. Added to this is the impetus given to this industry by introduction of many specialized rice preparations in the last 5-6 years by the industry spreading Indian culinary "signature" far and wide. Innumerable number of so called "Indian Stores", that serve the 2.7 million strong Indian community (less than 1% of the population in the US), more akin to the "pop and mom" type of family grocery shops that forms the backbone of food retail here, have substantially contributed to give a distinct identity to Indian foods abroad. It is a pleasure to see large super market shelves in the US, displaying a large range of Indian foods that include pickles, chutneys, sauces, "heat & serve" meals, etc, though much more needs to be done to infiltrate this segment of the market further to enlarge their presence and visibility to non-Indian consumers. Western palate is not considered to be bland any longer and mildly spiced foods are being liked by many of them expanding the range of customers for Indian ethnic foods in these countries. According to market experts, knowledgeable about growth of ethnic foods from different parts of the world, the next decade will see the growth of Indian foods similar to what sushi bars did in the 1980s and Thai food did in the '90s. A recent survey of ethnic food by one of the market research groups in the US found that the fastest growing segment was Indian food, with sales growing by more than 35 percent from 2006 to 2008. Of course the share of Indian food, about $ 40 million in the $2.2 billion ethnic food market, is not considered high compared to $ 1.4 billion generated by Mexican/Hispanic foods in 2009, Indian foods are expected to be the growth engine for this sector during the next decade. It is incredible that a city like New York boasts of more than 350 Indian restaurants to day compared to less than two dozens 3 decades ago. Same is true in many large metros in the US. Better presentation, more safety assurance features, improved ambiance and decor of the eateries, improved service quality, uniform food quality, more promotional activities, reasonable pricing and putting in place a reliable delivery service can make the growth chart steeper than what it is to day. Emerging scientific revelations about the positive impact of Indian foods like turmeric, ginger, chilli, black pepper, fenugreek, cinnamon etc on human health are bound to escalate interest in Indian foods substantially in future. If Indian restaurant set ups are linked to the processed food industry back in India, it should be possible to offer in such eating joints pre-processed foods of impeccable quality and safety that should reassure the non-Indian customers about "risk-free" eating and enhance the brand equity of indian ethnic foods interrnationally. V.H.POTTY http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/ http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com