ZORAWAR KALRAS MASSIVE RESTAURANTS
India-Pak T20 Clash: Pubs, quick commerce startups win the game
Makers of snacks, munchies and soft drinks said they saw a 25-30% surge in sales of such impulse categories on Sunday compared to regular weekends, especially of bigger, sharing packs, on e-commerce platforms. "Sales orders of large packs started to pick up around 12 noon onwards, as people began to stock up for the evening to watch the match indoors with friends and family," said a sales executive at a cola company.
Indians give eateries cold shoulder amid head-spinning heat
Extreme heatwave conditions across India have significantly impacted restaurants, pubs, and bars, leading to a sharp decline in sales and footfalls, with some outlets reporting up to a 40% decrease. Al fresco dining and high street locations are worst affected, especially during lunch hours, which are seeing a notable drop in business. The heatwave, with temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius in some places, has led people to avoid outdoor dining, impacting sales till about 6 pm.
Restaurants, food aggregators see record business on Mothers' Day
As compared to last year, restaurants saw families in larger packs, which, in turn, boosted the overall cover charges
Investments, M&As return to spice up food services space
Mainland China and Oh! Calcutta operator Speciality Restaurants is in advanced talks for its first set of acquisitions, Anjan Chatterjee, chairman of Speciality said, adding that the listed company has set aside a corpus of Rs 125 crore for M&As this calendar year. On the other hand, Rebel Foods, owner of Faasos and Mandarin Oak, is preparing for an initial share sale early next year, the first cloud kitchen company to go public.
Time now on the menu at fine dine restaurants
The rebound in the hospitality sector in India has resulted in longer dining times at fine-dine restaurants, with customers spending an additional hour on average at a table. The increase in dining time has reduced table cover turnover, prompting some businesses to introduce time slots for reservations. Restaurants have observed a shift in dining behavior, with two-course meals turning into four-course affairs, including drinks and after-meal coffee.
Barista and Massive Restaurants collaborate with Fudr to launch food ordering and payment app
Founded by technology and marketing professionals Aayush Khandpur, Prem Lokesh, Shobhit Marwah, and Akshat Khandpur, Fudr helps F&B brands build their app economies through its software as a service app builder stack that is fully integrated with POS and payment systems.
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For restaurateurs, it's an open and spurt case: Record number of new eateries, watering holes coming up
Zorawar Kalra, founder of Massive Restaurants that owns brands such as Farzi Cafe, Masala Library and Bo Tai, said he expects to end the year on a "record high," and will open 30 cloud kitchens this quarter, besides launching new restaurants in Bhopal, Chennai and Raipur.
Cricket is the hottest item on restaurant menus
Bars, restaurants, and delivery platforms are expecting a 30-40% increase in sales during the Cricket World Cup. Many establishments have rolled out discounts, promotions, cricket-themed menus, and screenings to attract customers. Food delivery app Zomato has signed actor Ranveer Singh and cricketer Chris Gayle for its World Cup campaigns. Some establishments have seen a spike in reservations, with customers preferring to watch the matches with friends. Lack of availability of tickets for India's matches has also prompted fans to make reservations at bars and restaurants.
Is this the future of food? A $500-million opportunity is slowly becoming a bigger portion on our plates
While the vegan market in India is steadily growing, several challenges need to be resolved for the products to become more pocket-friendly and readily available on more store shelves.
McDonald's has stopped using tomatoes in its burgers and wraps in many outlets as price pulps menus
McDonald's has stopped using tomatoes in some of its Indian outlets due to quality issues caused by a rise in tomato prices. Wholesale prices of the vegetable have surged by 288% in a month, reaching INR140 ($2.17) per kg in some areas. Pest attacks and hot weather in a number of parts of the country have limited production, according to Nomura economists. While some restaurant chains have been affected by soaring costs, none have indicated a willingness to increase prices.
Zorawar Kalra’s Massive Restaurants plans to set up new fund for US expansion
Massive Restaurants has operations in 10 countries. “We plan to be in 12 countries by mid-2024. The performance of the international units is extremely encouraging, and the unit economics are favourable to harbour the development of many more restaurants in many of these international geographies,” Kalra said.
Farzi cafe owner to raise funds soon for expansion
"We are looking for a fund raise because the business is growing rapidly and we are getting a great response," Massive Restaurants MD Zorawar Kalra said. "We are now going to grow the cloud business very fast through company owned outlets - no franchising to begin with. We are looking at raising funds very soon."
Bars, eateries look to non-metros for growth
According to an analysis by CBRE, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Visakhapatnam and Coimbatore will be new growth cities for retail consumption in the country. "Quality space has started coming to smaller cities as well and people there have to travel to the nearest town to enjoy nightlife. Many pubs have seen this as an opportunity and have planned expansion," said Shriram PM Monga, co-founder of retail consultancy firm SRED.
Hotel industry doesn't see COVID-19 as (year-end) party pooper, yet
Hotels, restaurants, pubs and bars have seen robust advance bookings ahead of the festivities, which are taking place for the first time in a full-fledged manner since 2019, said the executives.
Cafes and restaurants put pandemic woes behind them
"March was a very good month for the industry. A lot of people were already back to pre-Covid sales in March," said Kabir Suri, president of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI).
Eating out, buying alcohol to get 30% costlier in Delhi
"If on-premise places like restaurants, clubs and hotels have to buy at full MRP now, there will be menu price hike by 20-30%," said Rahul Singh, founder of Beer Cafe, which operates over 31 cafes and bars across India. "There are better ways to control queues at liquor vends such as allowing deliveries," Singh said.
Delhi imposes night curfew from Monday, restaurants say business will be massively hit
"The new year has gone for a toss. We will just try to focus on the lunches and will follow all the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) protocols, " said Akshay Anand, owner of Toy Room at Aloft Hotel in Delhi’s Aerocity and Ophelia at The Ashok.
Restaurateurs take Dubai route to leave footprint on world culinary map
From celebrity brands like Indya by chef Vineet Bhatia, Kinaara by chef Vikas Khanna, Signature by chef Sanjeev Kapoor to talented youngsters like Himanshu Saini, Vinu Ravindran, Prashant Chipkar, Saneesh Varghese, Sandeep Ail and mixologist Sherine John, Dubai has caught the imagination of Indian food industry.
Massive Restaurants considering expanding to US, besides Canada
The chain will expand to Canada through a Farzi Café in the middle of October and will have 25 operational cloud kitchens by the end of this year, up from seven currently. It will open its cloud kitchen brand Louis Burger, currently present in Mumbai, on October 15 in Delhi, Noida and Gurugram and has eight franchised Farzi Café outlets in the pipeline.
Covid infects lease pacts: Retailers say they will pay rent only in proportion to actual business in case of lockdowns
Amid last year’s nationwide lockdown and this year’s local lockdowns, retailers and restaurants have taken a massive hit, facing closure of outlets, huge losses and retrenchments.
As business suffers, eateries seek more relaxations
Zorawar Kalra, managing director of Massive Restaurants, said demand is heartening and more people are vaccinated now. But, the restrictions on timings are a major concern for the industry.
They opened new restaurants amid a fiery pandemic. Did it make any business sense?
The Covid crisis became an opportunity in disguise when leading names in the F&B sector decided to take stock of the lucrative market conditions for their businesses.
Delhi curbs: Restaurants and bars shut till April 30, cinemas to operate at 30% capacity
As per additional prohibitions announced by the state government on Thursday, shopping malls, bars and restaurants shall not be allowed to operate in the state till April 30 or further orders. Cinema halls and multiplexes will be permitted to open with 30% capacity, and restaurants can deliver food to customers’ homes.
Slowly, tables are getting filled up at restaurants
Zorawar Kalra, MD of Massive Restaurants that runs brands such as Farzi Cafe and Made in Punjab, said business for existing brands is at 70% of the pre-Covid numbers.
An alternate delivery channel: What began as a Covid-time experiment is now being explored by all restaurants
Industry executives said D2C channels also allow the restaurants to customise guest experiences and access to direct customer feedback instead of routing it through third-party aggregators.
Zorawar Kalra wants to talk Porsche-love with Jerry Seinfeld, discuss nuances of cars with Gautam Singhania
The restaurateur's first car was a second-hand Honda Acura.
Massive Restaurants boss says yes to sneakers with suits; calls pocket square 'the ultimate accessory'
Zorawar Kalra says Zegna is his favourite suit company.
Jiggs Kalra, the czar of Indian cuisine, passes away
Twitterati paid tribute to the culinary legend.
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