When the entire nation was dealing with the covid crisis. It was the food and service industry that was serving the people, also being a foodie and an outgoing person who loves to dine outside I felt attached to the subject to understand the impact they faced. friends in my circle have a food truck and I know their business was hit hard in covid. Several traditional food and service giants in my city had to change their way of practice and come online. Although people were not allowed to go outside whereas the tasty food from their restaurants was reaching them. Not all food services were online and if so, were receiving enough orders to maintain day to day affairs .from a consumers perspective, I didn’t think of it as much into details about labour shortage and raw materials availability, safety and precautions issues they had to deal in the process of delivering to us. India has been a country of tradition and culture over decades which include food as a part, making it a global business. Indian cuisines popularity along with the other non – Indian foods has made the emergence of the foodservice industries and has put us on a map. The very idea of India also includes its food and service industry. This industry contributes around 3% to the GDP of India and is its single largest employer with more than 73 lakhs people on its payrolls, Industry estimates suggest that one in every four restaurants in India may never open again, and NRAI estimates that over 22 lakh people employed within the industry will lose jobs as losses shoot as high as Rs. 1,00,000 Crores.
To many people, certain eating places are their favourites due to their preferences and with the particular recipe they have for the food, one loves about. The food and service industry along with many other industries in the county was hit hard due to the pandemic lockdown. It mainly depends on the physical availability of the customers and not having them to serve as one of the major issues during initial days and with later days with distancing taken its course, enough customers weren’t available which added to the problems. Living nearby a restaurant in my locality I was privileged to see these changes and issues personally. Restaurants in India are state subject had have got very little support and got not generate revenue still some fixed cost kept increasing.
Foreign direct investments in the country have been attracted by the booming food industry including online food startups like Swiggy and Zomato with the highest investment value from Samsung Ventures, Korea and Tencent, China. There is a rapid growth in the market for non-home cooked food with varied food habits in India.
The Indian Food and Beverage (F&B) Service Industry are one of the most vibrant industries that have seen unprecedented growth in the recent past and continue to expand rapidly. This can be attributed to the changing demographics, increase in disposable incomes, urbanisation and growth of organised retail.
The size of the Indian Food Services market in India (organized and unorganized) is estimated at INR 3,37,500 crore in 2017 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10% over the next 5 years to reach INR 5,52,000 crore by 2022. (Source: NRAI Technopak India Food Services Report 2016)
This sector is not only a service and beverage industry but is also an industry of food art and aesthetics. The organised and unorganised industry is home to many people including chefs, managers, food experts indirect beneficiaries such as farmers and Agri industries. During covid, the customers have changed their ways and priorities on ordering, Safety and hygiene have become a permanent addition to the customer’s decision making while dining out.
Due to COVID lockdown, this very industry was hit hard but it also adapted very well to meet the losses due to covid. Not all industry could recover and adapt like this industry. It adapted itself to contactless delivery, and healthy food on the menu to attract customers and when the entire nation was in fear to come out. They made them trust to have ordered food delivered to them. The two mega metros, Delhi & Mumbai, contribute a total of 22% (11% each) to the Food Services market. The 6 Mini-Metros constitute ~20% of the Food Services market, while the rest of the contribution comes from the Tier I & II cities along with the rest of India.
This industry is still on the rise in tier ii and tier iii cities and I belong to one of those cities and among all the sectors this felt more real to me and appealing to me.
Having had the conversation on the telephone with the owners of the food and service industry in Jamshedpur. I came across many facts and innovative ideas they came up with meeting the government norms to keep themselves running. Not a lot of them could coup up. I found a trend among the food chains and restaurants which were backed well financially came off strong and food startups on the rented place and based more on physical assembly of people were hit out hard. Dining rooms were closed to customers. Carry out and delivery was the new normal.
During Covid, the biggest problem for the restaurant owners was an adaptation and the biggest change was new safety measures. Employees needed to follow new safety rules all the time. It was the only way for them to be effective. This included changing gloves, wiping each table with a fresh towel, and wearing masks. Managers had to make sure these safety rules were followed. Meanwhile, they also had to manage orders and staff. While talking with them I understood the need to be adaptive and multi-purpose to survive. Panicking and procrastination in int’s implementation can cause a lot of trouble and also affect on a long term basis. Having a good customer relationship is very important. This fact made more point when I asked about the delivery patterns of customers when dining was not allowed the managers told most of the customers who ordered food were their regulars and they kinda trusted in them. This went well with staff that has been old and had people over experience. Also, food trucks who had their facebooks pages and community groups had themselves placed at a comfortable status with the promotion of their safety while packing food and having no employee in the food and service industry in Jamshedpur Covid Positive also helped them well. However, they dealt with a shortage in supply at times and had to bear the monitory loss. The profit earned from delivery and take away wasn’t enough to equal running expenses of staff, place and other bills and many had to work in the loss while made stopped their services. This factor was mainly dependent on the ownership pattern of the shops. One of the managers of a startup food truck business told me in no whatsoever had I projected this crisis because whatever crisis it may be food industry would never go under loss. However, being a startup barely having made himself a name in the city had to work on digital marketing during covid to reach his targeting customers. A lot of managers and owners also complained about the system of delivery partners application who were creative enough in attracting customers due to their interface not being creative enough.
A shortage of staff has affected nearly all of the restaurants. Many mentioned that almost all of the restaurants were hiring. Some were operating at only 50% capacity and still having a hard time finding enough staff to work. Having enough people for each shift is a constant struggle. And bringing in extra hands means that they were always training new hires. Some new hires had restaurant experience – and some don’t. Training takes time. It also takes extra hands.
Providing carryout options also increased supply costs. More single-use containers were needed. Plastic silverware needed to be included with each order. Condiments that were usually kept in a bottle where then need to be individually packaged. Managers said that these costs affected every restaurant business.
COVID-19 worries have introduced a concerning new trend in restaurants: customers are nervous while a lot of them have adapted and changed their models many have come up with new ways to boost their sales. Times are tough and whoever I meet I found everyone with positive intent and spirit to fight back and come strong.
There is no one solution to the troubles facing the restaurant industry as the pandemic is a planet-size pause & rewind button for public life around the world. The right stimulus from the public sector along with relentless F&B tech innovation and attention to health & sanitation are the only things likely to revive this industry. To coup up, the Foodservice industry needs to come up with Tech-enabled transparency in their system. Early in the pandemic, headlines across the country focused on outbreaks at food and meat manufacturing plants. As a result, more consumers have looked critically at where their food comes from and who makes it. Experts say that theme will continue for the time, with technology working to make food and workers safer.
The restaurant business has been dealt a massive economic blow and employees – many of whom work hourly and rely on a regular paycheck or tips. While they may be staffing differently these days to accommodate for changed consumer behaviour, they must schedule strategically to ensure their employees are protected from illness as well as dramatic income loss.
The food and service industry is Changing in the country especially in tier ii and tier iii cities.
The only silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic for the Indian Food and service industry will be that like demonetisation in 2017, it will force the adoption of digital innovation. Given that the restaurant industry is an enshrined experience-led market, dining-out and restaurant-tech platforms are working hard to modify and improve restaurant-diner interactions to create an environment of convenience, trust and support.
The first and foremost challenge that restaurants will face after the COVID pandemic is around ways to manage the sea-change in consumer behaviour to the very idea of dining out. With the rise of the ‘conscious consumer’, restaurants maintaining the utmost hygiene and adopting digital menus & digital payment solutions would weather the slowdown better. With popular restaurants likely to be operating at 50 per cent or less of total capacity to ensure social distancing, apps that offer diners online reservation and pre-ordering and waitlist management that help minimize table turn-times, further shortening the queue of people waiting to be served will prove to be critical.
The quality of food is a major concern for food delivery businesses. With food delivery, there’s always a risk of poor packaging or spillage. This can happen if couriers aren’t careful or if restaurants don’t pack food correctly.
Food served in a restaurant right from the kitchen is a different experience from food delivered to your doorstep. This causes a major rift between the delivery partner and the restaurant since problems can be from any end resulting in customer loyalty.
In 2019 – 2020 there is a wide shift of consumers to organic foods which increased demand and this has become the main focus of business for many industry brands to launch health products, immune boosters and farm to table menus. Which, now in Covid-19 period has the trend to change into the lifestyle by consumers in fore-coming years? There is a sharp rise in the use of mobile food app usage during the period of lockdown in India.
The sector employed over seven million people before the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. According to data by industry body NRAI (National Restaurant Association of India), more than 30 per cent of bars and eateries in India have closed operations permanently because of the coronavirus-induced lockdown.10% of restaurants have shut down permanently, another 30% unlikely to reopen
The dining out industry in India is yet to bounce back and is operating at 8-10 per cent of pre-Covid levels. The slump in the industry is largely driven by markets being in lockdown, consumers not stepping out due to fear of transmission and restaurants not opening up, even if the city is not in lockdown.
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