HOSPITALITY Eating out
Mumbai has the highest eating-out and ordering-in fre-quency in India. Commissioned by the NRAI, compiled by Technopak and described as “most comprehensive”, the National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) India Food Services Report (IFSR) 2016 states that Mumbai, with the highest GDP in India, is a hugely profitable market for food businesses and emphasises trends and figures. Jaykumar Jiten-drasinh Rawal, Maharashtra’s minis-ter of tourism, released the report in Mumbai about this major labour intensive industry. In Delhi, Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, had launched a report on food businesses last July.
“The organised food services market in Mumbai is estimated to contribute 23,500-4,000 crore as taxes. Out of the 5,00,000 people employed by food services in Mumbai, the organised segment employs around 2,70,000 (53 per cent) of the total workforce. As per the NSDC, restaurants contribute the maximum manpower requirement within the hospitality sector. This is by no means a small achievement,” says Riyaaz Amlani, president, NRAI. Many are also employed in several ancillary industries. He stated that from the top 10 restaurants in the city in 2012, only two sur-vived in 2016. Since no one ministry covers restaurants, businesses have to go to several departments for ‘the plethora of licences and Nocs”, like the shops and establishments department in the BMC for licences and health permits, the legal metrology department for weights and measures and the fire department for fire licences. He asked for deregulation and incentives for new restaurants, appreciated recent initiatives but deplored the “complex maze of approvals, licences and high tax brackets” which counteracted ‘ease of doing business’. He sought single-window licensing, permission for 24×7 operations, reduction in the drinking age and usage of terraces for serving food.
Potential for growth Rahul Singh, honorary secretary, NRAI, mentioned that many multinational brands had entered the country and prospered and there was support and investment from vcs and PE firms. “The potential for growth is also cemented by the fact that previously international companies that • preferred entering through a masterfranchise route, are now launching through company-owned outlets or joint ventures with Indian affiliates.”
According to him, the organised market (chains and standalones) is valued at 214,665 crore ($2.3 billion), a significant 14 per cent of the total organised food services market in India. The chain market in Mumbai is estimated at 24,715 crore ($725 million). The unorganised market holds a 55 per cent share and is valued at 217,665 crore ($5 billion). He added that the organised standalone market is dominated by ‘casual dining’ formats.
The department of tourism is in the process of creating a single window clearance for the hospitality industry and restaurants backed by an empowered committee. Expected results are faster clearances, a single source for information on requirements, transparent tracking of status, enabling online applications, etc. Rawal noted the government’s move to introduce shopping, entertainment and city hubs at 22 points along the Mumbai-Nagpur corridor that would offer “tremendous investment potential for restaurateurs and QSR chains”. Amit Jatia of McDonalds and chapter head, NRAI Mumbai, stressed that to be relevant in the future, players need to reinvent ways of doing business.
The NRAI IFSR 2016 was pre-pared after interacting with compa-nies, meetings with over 50 cEos and research across 20 cities. WatConsult and Lodha Capital Markets contrib-uted to ‘Digital Marketing Practices’ and ‘Prospects of Private Equity/Ven-ture Capital Investing in India’. The next NRAI IFSR 2016 will be launched in Bengaluru.
