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"QSRs registering year-over-year growth of 15-20%"
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Monday, 20 April, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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fiogf49gjkf0d  Lite Bite Foods (LBF) Pvt. Ltd. commenced operations in the year 2001. Today, LBF is one of the largest F&B retail companies in the country with 12 brands under its umbrella. Over the last decade, LBF has introduced unique and unconventional concepts in the rapidly growing F&B retail space under both the fine-dining and casual dining restaurant verticals. Currently covering more than 1 million sq ft of retail space, LBF has a presence in prominent malls, high street, New Delhi airport, Mumbai airport, corporate hubs and hotels. Rohit Aggarwal, director, Lite Bite Foods, in an email interaction with Anurag More, spoke about the current status and driving factors of QSR business. Excerpts:
What is the current status of Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) business in India? At what rate is it growing?
QSRs have been growing at a fast pace in India, registering year-over-year growth of 15-20 per cent; this trend is expected to continue over coming years. Quick service restaurants are well-entrenched in the big metropolitan cities, and companies are now pushing into tier II and III cities such as Patna, Pune and Chandigarh. Indian consumers are more than ever willing to try new cuisines and foods and have the purchasing power to back it up.
What are the trends and future prospects of QSR in India?
QSR industry has become very youth-oriented these days. It has become absolutely necessary to understand what the biggest chunk of the customers want as they contribute a lot in building the reputation of a restaurant. The industry is constantly evolving since it revolves around smart journalism, with various food-centric TV shows coming in the picture - the eating out trend has evolved for good in the past few years.
What are the driving factors for the segment?
Indian consumers are becoming conscious of the quality of the food and drinks they consume. Apart from that, the change in the social landscape in urban India has spurred growth in fast food restaurants. QSR’s are increasingly becoming social hangouts, where the young population gathers to meet friends and spend their leisure time.
Brief us about your restaurants. What is your market share?
LBF is one of the largest and most dynamic F&B retail companies in the country. Over the last decade, LBF has introduced unique and unconventional concepts in the rapidly growing F&B retail space under both fine-dining and casual dining restaurant verticals. Our awarded hero brands are Punjab Grill, Zambar, Fresc Co and Asia 7 – winners of several critic awards and well known for their respective cuisines across the country.
What makes you different from other players?
Lite Bite Foods today, is probably the only organisation in its segment to operate 10 brands across three key verticals - Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs), Casual Dining Restaurants (CDRs) and Fine Dining Restaurants (FDRs). Apart from this, we also own and manage entire food courts in a wide range of locations like airports, shopping malls, office complexes, high street, hospitals and metro stations.
Lite Bite Foods is also among the first few food retailing ventures selected to set up F&B operations at the modernised domestic airport in Delhi.
With consumers getting health-conscious, is the focus also on health- conscious products?
Just like gluten-free diet, people these days are also shifting to grain-free food. At our restaurants too, the chefs are introducing grain-free food in the menu by using alternatives for example.
What are the challenges faced by the industry?
One of the trickiest areas to tackle these days is ‘Social Media.’ It becomes really difficult to control what people are writing about you on platforms like Facebook or Twitter. Apart from that, it is getting very difficult to hire efficient manpower these days. More importantly, the most challenging characteristic is to retain the good manpower. LBF has been fortunate enough to have a motivated and happy team.
How is the industry coping with the challenges?
At LBF, we believe that a motivated staff is the key to a successful running restaurant. Keep them happy, let them experiment and understand them.
What are the trends you have witnessed in the segment?
The F&B industry has become very youth-oriented these days. It has become absolutely necessary to understand what the biggest chunk of the customers want as they contribute a lot in building the reputation of a restaurant. The industry is constantly evolving since it revolves around smart journalism, with various food-centric TV shows coming in the picture - the eating out trend has evolved for good in the past few years.
Brief us about your expansion plan. How much are you investing in it?
We have an aggressive expansion plan in place and we are looking forward to set up a number of restaurants in multiple formats. We are also planning to increase the number of outlets of our signature brands - Punjab Grill, Street Foods by Punjab Grill and Baker Street in the domestic market and also spread our reach in the international market in the next few years.
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