Hyderabad evolving as trendsetter in restaurant biz space

Hyderabad: Specialty Restaurants is known for its casual dining and wet-led restaurants across India as well as in other countries. The company, which has presence in Hyderabad through Mainland China and other brands, is now focusing on new format restaurants.

"Hospitality sector in Hyderabad is clocking growth every year. Growth indicators in the city are in line with national growth numbers," Avik Chatterjee, Head-Innovation & New Formats, Speciality Restaurants, tells P Madhusudhan Reddy

How the hospitality sector is doing in the country now? What was the growth last fiscal year?

With factors such as urbanisation, rising income levels and improved investment climate, growth in food sector has been good over the last year, driven primarily by affordable, casual dine restaurants and QSRs (quick service restaurants). The overall growth has been around 11 per cent.

What are the new trends in the hospitality sector?

As online delivery platforms are scaling their operations, cloud kitchens are increasing drastically. It's been noticed that customers are going to back to roots with comfort food and classic cocktail presentations with subtle twists. Restaurants are focusing on healthy options on their menus. As a result, we have noticed that more and more home style cafes & healthy restaurants are coming up.

How the new format restaurants' segment is doing? How is the Hyderabad market in this space?

This segment has been doing well and the attraction has been great so far. We are seeing a month-on-month growth. Hyderabad as a city has evolved so much in past couple of years and is not only up to date with trends in major metro cities but also will soon start being a trend setter.

Specialty Restaurants seems to be in expansion mode. What are the expansion plans of the company for next five years? How much investment will the company make in the next five years?

Cloud kitchen expansion is underway in over 15 cities in India. We are rigorously focusing on this and soon we should be delivering to every doorstep. The growth pattern for Speciality Restaurants has been divided into two focal points. Casual dining and wet-led dining. Our new restaurants will be coming up in London, Doha, pan India. They will be named Episode, Riyasat and Miss Poh.

How the hospitality sector is doing in Hyderabad?

Hospitality sector in Hyderabad is clocking growth every year. Growth indicators in the city are in line with national growth numbers.

What is your presence in Hyderabad? Will you open more restaurants in the city? Do you have any plans to open your restaurants in Amaravati, the new capital city of Andhra Pradesh?

Speciality Restaurants will be expanding in Hyderabad very soon with our new wet-led brands. Thereafter, we will look at Tier 2 cities. It is said that human resources is a big challenge for hospitality sector in India…..

Our company is over 28 years old. We have the best of employees which are working with us since years. Attrition rate is extremely low and that is great for us. We all work together, like a big Family. That's how everybody feels at Speciality Restaurants Ltd

You launched a venture called MadBites, a midnight food delivery service. How was the experience?

MadBites was a great learning experience & played a big role in learning the ground realties of many aspects of the food business such as staffing, material management systems, delivery & vendor management. Is Specialty Restaurants looking at any new segments or diversification?

Yes, Taptails is a concept never been done before. It is like a cocktail brewery. We launched it with Epis­ode in Kolkata. Taptails are no-str­ess, no-mess way of getting cocktails with ease. With this system, it is easy to make long-life handcrafted cocktails. All you need to add is ice!