Restaurant Sector – Life After COVID 19
From top notch restaurants to street food joints all are in hibernation mode. On 21st march since Mr. Narendra Modi announced the Janta Curfew which followed by the 21 days lockdown and its extension, restaurateurs had no choice but to enforce them to shutter-down their restaurants not giving any possibility to rational thinking. Once thriving with guests 365 days without holidays are facing such a scenario of lockdown for the first time. Restaurateurs don’t have much clue that how is after-lock-down period is going to treat them. What happens when one fine day Narendra Modi appears on television and declares that pandemic lockdown is over and you can start you business?
Getting contrasting news about the pandemic from authentic and unauthentic social media messages and other mediums, the brains of restaurateurs which are otherwise filled with creativity are now jumbled with questions and uncertainty. Whether the restaurants will open after the end date? Many restaurateurs survived the lockdown but will they survive the re-opening? Whether the staff which is on leave return from their natives? Whether the loyal guests come back? Whether the so called rage of home-chefs sustain the demand of eating out? Whether the spending of eating out be the same as before? How to manage the operating loss incurred during the lock down? Even if the restaurants commence how to manage the cash flow if the businesses do not pick up suddenly? The list is endless.
Corporates and giant companies have decided to pay full salaries to their employees, may be because they have such reserves and provisions made. While restaurants even the top and the best ones, operate on tight financial model, over and above the shockwaves of the off-seasons and peak-seasons. Already the restaurant sector was not performing the healthiest in February 2020 due to the slow down or many reasons and pandemic attacked!
People since ages have perceived that restaurateurs are sitting on pot of gold but that’s not true they run on extremely tight budgets.
The lock down of couple of months might have eaten up the surplus or reserves of mostly all the restaurants because the income had stopped but not all the expenses. To re-start restaurant after pandemic lockdown is declared over, the restaurateur will need more then guts and spirits
Then how to bring back the good times at the restaurants?
Even if the restaurant community is entrepreneurial enough, it’s not going to be enough to fight the situation alone. Being positive is definitely important aspect but so are many other aspects which need to be taken care of…
How as a society we can be a part of lifting up the restaurant sector like never before:
Restaurant owners:
Hygiene will be the game changer after the lock down is over. Now the restaurant owners should know that they are not majorly in food business now but ATMOSPHERE BUSINESS. The food definitely is going to be on the top but atmosphere you provide will be very very important. There will be lot of people who want to go to their favorite restaurant but it all depends on how you deal to bring confidence in you guests’ heart! Staggered commencement of your restaurant is just fine but complete each and every process beforehand which will make you guests feel safe when they visit.
Deep clean the restaurant taking help professional agencies. Get rid of pests involving best pest control agencies which are government approved. Stress has to be given on diligently disposing expired products, because such long lockdown has happened for the first time in the restaurant sector’s history and raw material handling can be challenging. Many restaurateurs have open handedly distributed the groceries and vegetables to their big fleet, yet be careful when loading new raw materials in the stores and kitchen. New SOP (standard operating procedure) has to be in place before the restaurant commences. Before the ‘wow factor’ was brought out by the recipes, services and interior design. But now the top factor to ‘wow’ the guests will be the hygiene. It’s the time to apply the theory of 2 meter distance between the tables in the restaurants. Tables unless there are big groups should be kept at a distance of 2 meters. Don’t care too much about the turnover for now. If the number of covers are getting lesser don’t worry. If you win the hearts of your guests and bring in confidence about the hygiene and social distancing you maintain then you have won half the game this time.
To restart the restaurant after lockdown will not be a kid’s play!
With limited or no working capital at the disposal new mandatory investments have to be done wisely. Get health check up done of all the staff re-joining the restaurant. Invest in good quality PPE (personal protective equipment) for the service staff. Brief the manager and chef of the new SOP and to be extremely sensitive about hygiene standards. Promote and place your restaurant well on social media and let your loyal guests know the practices you follow are the best to maintain the hygiene and sanitation. Also communicate well that you have no employees with COVID history. Display good quality sanitizers on the entrance. Use the non-contact forehead thermometer for guests, staff and vendors entering your premises. Introduce no contact menus, through apps and websites. Many third party vendors will be eager to tie up for this in coming times so don’t worry if you don’t have a website or an app.
Bring a microbiologist on board for random swab tests on surfaces, kitchen and employees.
Many restaurants have initiated their take-away business to occupy themselves, make most out of the resources. Because of the low operating model the small restaurant has an upper edge when it comes to take-aways. Smaller models will also be at an upper edge when it will come to re-starting business after the lockdown. But that doesn’t mean they should avoid hygiene factor. Takeaway and delivery business has to be operated keeping safe food and hygiene on priority. The guests are for sure ready to pay few bucks more on hygienic packaging. Ensure your counter executive and delivery executive is up-kept with PPE, sanitizer of best quality. When you design your new packaging don’t miss to communicate the message about the care you have taken to make the food in the best safety standards.
If you are dealing with online aggregators make sure they follow the high standard of hygiene as well.
Though eating out experience is unbeatable, focus on door-delivery, takeaway and gift cards will marginally help you in these testing times.
Finally create a self rating hygiene sheets in which you mention the steps to take to sanitize your kitchen the dining area and back area. Display it on your website/app/entrance and take feedback from your guests.
Mindful approach of hygiene and safety will go a long way in getting the guest return to the restaurants soon.
Restaurant staff:
Employees of the restaurants should know that it’s not only talent or the recipes or the services which work. Running a restaurant is amalgamation of many aspects and one of the very important aspects is entrepreneurship. Many chefs have failed when they started their own ventures but are very successful working in a restaurant. Many restaurants have paid full salaries of March 2020 and many will also pay for April. But there will be many restaurants that will not be in a state to provide full salaries to employees. It will be a wrong thinking that employees have slogged enough all these years and hence it’s their right to take full salaries during the pandemic. Restaurant sector, because of its tight financial model nature can’t create enough salary provisions unlike other capital intensive businesses. Even the most successful restaurant has to run day in and day out with optimum capacity, without a single day break to sustain the fat expense model and thin profit margin scenario. Draconian expenses such as rent, commercial electricity, fuel/gas and taxes are such expenses which keep restaurant business on toes. Salaries, raw material costs and many hidden costs, like software maintenance, other maintenance, repairs, uniforms and the list is endless.
To bring back restaurant fast on track employees should remain thoughtful, compassionate with your company, with your industry and think long term.
Property owners:
Many property owners have waived off 2 months of rent of the restaurants, many have granted 50 % waiver and many have delayed. Few property owners are not ready to share the pains and are tight enough in their collection practices which in this testing times is cruel. Property owners should know that the waiting outside the restaurants doesn’t mean they have created a goldmine for themselves. It’s the right time for the property owners to show their most considerate side to uplift the restaurant sector sooner than later.
Online aggregators:
They should have known by now that good times awaits for them and guests will be ordering online will be on the rise, like never before. They should be ready with their backend to absorb the rush, their logistics team and their third party delivery vendors. They should know that it will be testing times for restaurants industry, hence not squeeze them with heavy markups in-fact, go down on their charges. Because the door delivery business is going to rise they can afford it without affecting much on their balance sheets.
Guests:
Many connoisseurs and foodies have already started making list of which restaurants to visit after the pandemic lockdown is declared over and restaurants are restored, up n thriving. Many are putting pictures of their favorite restaurants and dishes cherishing the not-far-past memories.
On the other hand many are cautious wondering whether the restaurants are safe to visit or not. Thumb rule in India, during epidemics be like ‘stop eating outside food’ and you shall be all-right.
Guests as stakeholders cannot be commanded at this juncture but they will, with carefulnesss start visiting their favorite restaurants and start living a normal happy life. They should know that the restaurants will be taking enough care in their hygiene, the employees well trained and social distancing and other important aspects of hygiene well into consideration. After all restaurants will not make sense if there are no guests, hence restaurants will be geared up and will have left no stone unturned to wow their loyals, once again!
Vendors:
All these years restaurant vendors to the restaurant industry have been an important part of their support system. There are instances where vendors have invested in the restaurants and become stake holders. After the lockdown period their support will be crucial. Vendors will also be hungry for business after the lockdown and of course collection will be in their mind. But the restaurants will need some time to cope up the 2 months loss and even after the lockdown period how the business will be is uncertain. Your support in delaying collections, supporting restaurants with supplying their raw material on credit will help re-gain confidence and help them to rise faster.
From the government:
In Britain the government has launched a low interest collateral free loan especially for Covid 19 affected named “Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme” and restaurants have started taking benefits of the same. Government has to liberally work on such sops. Government should consider to provide relief on the restaurateur’s liability of PF and ESI. Relief in income tax, municipal tax and other taxes will provide a fresh enthusiasm to the restaurant owners. After all restaurant industry employs lakhs of talents and skilled labours by which they run their families.
And importantly provide ample communication and lead-time to restaurants before-hand they announce the date of lockdown getting over. This step maters a lot because through different sources the restaurant owners are confused whether restaurant sector will be allowed to be operated on the same dates after the pandemic lockdown is over or it will be delayed.
Hence, to bring restaurant industry on track along with restaurant owners, many have an important role to play.
The writer of this article is a Suril Udeshi, restaurant consultant, who curates few prestigious restaurants and hospitality formats in Ahmedabad. He can be reached on e: suriludeshi@gmail.com ph.+91 9879300016
