This Start-up Creates Handcrafted Food for its Customers

Delhi is all set to welcome its first international club, lounge & fine dine property Lithiyum at Hotel Ashoka by mid July.

Customers can indulge in three of the five basic sense, Sight, Sound, Taste right here at Lithiyum- where customers will come to get charged. With its most professional sound system in the world (yes, in the whole wide world), feel the pulsating beats and let your body groove to them.

The property is divided into three sections: Club, Fine Dine & Open Hangout Café/lounge. Lithiyum is a never before luxurious amalgamation of a superior fine dine, gastro pub nightclub and a cocktaileria.

“We wish to give the city a place where they can party and hangout in a complete international ambience with electrifying music and delectable food, that’s how Lithiyum came in our mind. With all the world class music system, lights, ambience, fusion food it will definitely be the NEXT BIG THING in the Delhi Hospitality culture” says Saurabh Katyal, M.D. Lithiyum.

The place also has indoor waterfalls that will put customers in splendid mood to relax and rejuvenate. The hangout room and fine dining areas are an extension of this splendid relaxation. 

Food is something which people relate to their well being. No matter how bad the situation is or how dry the market is food is never going to die. And, as people these days travel a lot and their life style is highly motivated by international trends, they no more wants to eat junk. Today, people are looking for home cooked foods and their similarities at restaurants. And, they want t order these kinds of foods from online players who have started this trend by offering the customers the kind of food they want to eat. And, forced by these cultural preferences restaurants is also taking the same route by introducing simpler food and menu for customers who are always on travel and need home style cooking to suffice their need.

“We have got overwhelming response and our fan following has been increasing by the day. People sometimes get nostalgic about the whole experience. They relate it to the home-cooked foods by their mothers and grandmothers,”shares Yogesh Magar who started Wah Marathi to serve traditional Maharashtrian food. Magar came up with restaurant after experimenting almost 400 dishes, and took four months to filter them.

Everybody knows menu is very important part of the restaurant design. You never know when your customer will say he does not like this particular food or the spices were a bit strong in this particular meal. And as customers today have become more health conscious one needs to have a look at that market as well especially at people who are travelling a lot, who always eat out and are very health conscious because they are travelling all the time and they can’t eat junk all the time. “For customers like them we do something which is very similar to ‘Ghar Ka Khaana’. So, we are evolving, we change the menu according to the need of our guests. We can’t force them to eat what we cook... we are there to listen to their demand and we continue to evolve,” adds Chef Ajit Bangera, Senior Executive Chef- ITC Grand Chola.

Menu for a restaurant is soul of the brand. A good menu can make a restaurant whereas a bad food can break it. Hence, you can say that food is the journey that one takes from his culinary experiences. Commenting on the same, Sharad Sachdeva, CEO- Lite Bite Foods adds, “Menu of Punjab Grill is the soul of the brand. Punjab Grill aims to take you on a culinary journey into the grandeur of undivided Punjab. It is an exploration of the wonderful diversity of the Frontier Food and rich streams of Hindu, Sikh, Pathan and Punjab cuisine; a tradition flown downstream through the immigrants of West Punjab, who have lovingly cherished and preserved it,” adding that From Salmon Tikka to Tandoori Guchchi, from Champ Taajdaar to Raan-E-Sikandari, the restaurant offer a huge spread of some of the best North Indian cuisines that takes you beyond the typical dal makhni and butter chicken.

And, with all happening around food and travel we can say that there are lots more that can be seen and witnesses in the food business. Today, restaurants are no more treated as a place to celebrate or go on a dream dinner date...instead it’s become the next home to be. 

What made you start Jiyo Natural?

The need of having healthy food is growing every day. We are trying to balance health and taste without compromising on food quality. We don’t use any colour, no preservatives, no colour enhancer anything. Whatever we use is completely natural and that’s our core philosophy to use complete natural ingredients. For example, we make bake vada pav. We make sure food is healthy and today people are looking at healthy meal, which they get at home which is free from any kind of chemical. We are on a ride to make food balance and healthy. And, that’s the need of the people who are more and more health conscious today.

Do you have special meal plan for special people?

We also can take care of the people who are a patient, for example if somebody is diabetic we can provide a wholesome customise menu for them- if somebody has high level of sugar we would normally try to know what are the conditions they have so that we can customise the kind of food, quality of food and the quantity of food as well.

We think people get bored of the same food every day. How often do you customise your menu?

One thing that People want to look for is variety these days, even at home we look for variety every day. So, we keep changing our menu every 4^th week.

What are the different kinds of cuisine you are serving?

We are serving North Indian, South Indian, and we occasionally do Chinese and Continental food. We are not a food start-up, though we are serving food and our core is food but we are a wellness start up on a ride to provide healthy food.

Who are your target customers?

We are catering to the IT companies because that’s where customers are and in Bengaluru we have majority of population from north who are working at these hubs.

You have raised funding from IAN in September. Where can we see those money being invested?

We invested them on marketing and advertising. We acquired another company called Sangeeta Aahar more from the capacity purpose to increase the number of orders. And, with this we have now capacity to do 5000 orders a day.

What are the orders that you do today?

We are doing around 3500 orders daily, our funding has actually helped us grow the business. We are growing at 20-25 per cent month on month.

How about entering to other cities?

Next round of funding we will be using on two slabs- there have been a lot of demand from other cities so we will be looking at three cities to enter and now that we know how to expand, R&D and all is in place we will cater to more customers.

Which are the cities in your radar?

In next three months we will enter into cities like Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune to begin with. And, why we don’t want to do Delhi and Mumbai market because we will do that in second phase and there are already quite a few layers in these markets so there is tough competition.

When can we see the next round of funding happening?

We are talking to VCs and angel funding companies. Hopefully, we should get some funding in next two months but we will reveal it in next six months.

What are the plans other than expanding geographically?

We are also going to other healthcare providers to get their customers on board. Companies who are into healthcare, they have a clientele who need good food as per the meal plan given to them and we will now focus on them.

What is your average ticket value?

Indian customers want value for money meal. We have an average ticket size of Rs 100- 150 per meal. 

Replying back to the HSBC report that halved Zomato's valuation, Deepinder Goyal, Founder & CEO of Zomato has written a mail to its 2100 employees globally saying that they are market leaders in about 18 countries today.

Citing that the investors are bullish about their company and willing to invest in the company further, Goyal also shared that there company is growing at (>50%) of business to some of the biggest restaurant names in the country.

“The report claims that we have low market share. Our internal data shows that we drove a large percentage (>50%) of business to some of the biggest restaurant names in the country. Our traffic in India, our home market, also grew 8% in April 2016 over March 2016. We have over 8.5 million monthly unique in India alone – very few Indian companies can claim that much traffic share in a single category. Also, we are currently present in 23 countries, and we are the market leaders in 18 of them,” Goyal added.

According to the HSBC report it also mentioned that the company needs to invest in their online and delivery business, but Goyal disagreed to the report claiming that the restaurant search engine site has hit 33,000 online orders yesterday – at their average order values.

“We already are profitable in the order business at a unit economics level, and the overall online ordering business will hit profitability when we get to an average of 40,000 orders a day. We should get there in the next 3-6 months. Also, there isn’t any food delivery company in the world which owns its last mile logistics fleet, operates at scale, and is profitable. These assumptions and statements in the HSBC report make it look like they’re coming from someone who doesn’t – and hasn’t bothered to – understand the space well,” Goyal added further.

Citing about the US operations it said the US is an overcrowded market, and we will not be able to make inroads into the US. HSBC, because it never spoke to us, doesn’t know that we didn’t acquire Urbanspoon for its US presence.

“We acquired it for Australia and Canada, and our traffic is kicking ass in these two markets. We are monetising the traffic in Australia already, and Melbourne and Sydney are already in the top 5 revenue generating cities for us across the world,” Goyal clarified.

Going forward Goyal also claimed that revenue has doubled over the past 9 months. Costs have been rationalised. “Burn is down 70% from the peak – it was high because we were experimenting with various business models and geographies, which we have cut down drastically – and we are now focused on the large opportunity in front of us in our core business and core markets,” Goyal elaborated. 

Tell us something about your company? How long has your company been in the business?

deliKitchen.in was started in August 2014. deliKitchen.in is collaborating with homemakers, professional chefs and restaurants on one platform to delight the taste buds of customers from every financial background. deliKitchen.in is poised to become fastest growing food tech startup in India. We are obsessed with technology and want to leverage it to get closer to our customers.

What are the exclusive offers you provide?

deliKitchen offers standard veg and non veg meals from multiple basket of home makers, tiffin service, vendors and restaurants like Preetto Kitchen, Deli Kitchen, GeetaRasoi etc. International cuisines, continental, health, diet and diabetic food is also offered by some of the vendors.

What packaging techniques do you use to preserve freshness and purity of products that you supply?

deliKictehn doesn’t use preservatives, we serve fresh food to our customers.

What are the return policies at your end?

All of our meals are backed by 100 percent customer satisfaction guarantee. If customer is not satisfied with a meal for any reason, they can contact us within one day after delivery and we will either replace the meal or credit the purchase price for that meal. However, for same day orders, customers can cancel within 30 minutes from the time of order for 100 percent refund.

How do you decide pricing for the Indian market?

deliKitchen.in is the platform to delight the taste buds of customers from every financial background and hence we have ‘complete food’ ranges from Rs 60 to Rs 2000. We keep very stringent quality control on our kitchens and we listen to our customer feedbacks.

From where do you source the products?

deliKItchen.in sources the raw materials from local market and super bazaars to cook the freshest food.

What is the supply chain process at your end?

deliKictchen.in sources the raw material, process them in kitchen under controlled environment, get the delicious food ready and then it reaches to the customers. deliKitchen.in takes the feedbacks and feeds-in into the process for possible improvements.

What is your expansion plans?

After successful completion of six months and reaching target of 200 orders daily within Delhi, we will be expanding to nearby cities and major metros.

What are your branding and marketing activities?

deliKitchen.in is focussed on getting good chefs and homemakers along with good restaurants on board. We take 15 per cent of order as commission from partners, for home kitchens, we provide delivery services too at additional cost to get customers we have many campaigns started as First order is free, it’s on us. We will delivery groceries worth your order along with second order delivery.  

Food tech, once a very revered phrase is now experiencing its own share of midlife crisis. It is still early days in Food tech l with boom just round the corner and Star Dust/Bust falling all over the place.  And, in a couple of quarters the dust will settle in and give way to the stars and survivors.

Now if you are bitten by Food Tech bug and want to give it a shot nevertheless here a few pointers that may help you find yourself in good stead before you take plunge –

1) Have Game changer ideas, not discounts – Just for your information if you felt Discounts are a game changer, you are in for a terrible surprise. Food space needs value ads and not discounts alone. There are enough and more discerning customers who understand value for a Good quality Product or Service. Hence, focus on garnering value.

2) Get your team right – Right team is not just a requirement of Food Tech, but of any business. In these trying times in Food Tech domain a good understanding team member can bring in lot of courage and motivation. Remember, I mentioned above that surviving these times is also an achievement in its own respect.

3) Focus on Product and User Experience - With competition intensifying, customer loyalty looks like a thing of Archives. Get your focus on Product and the entire ecosystem affecting Customer experience. It will be good to have control of Customer Experience as much as possible, but getting right partners to get it done is as good and cost effective. Remember, Customer Experience doesn’t stop at ordering online, but when customers consume your product and says a Wow word 

4) Plan to grow organic – Luring customers with discounts and freebees has proven to be a disaster for Food tech. Do not fall in that trap. “Grow Slow: Grow Strong” we at FoodAbhi.com totally believe and practice it and follow it in everything we do.

5) Keep your head down and focus on customer – Your single most important asset will be your customer, so before taking the plunge understand what your Target market needs. Are there enough takers. If not don’t get discouraged, understand if there is a latent need.

For eg: When we started;FoodAbhi.com was and continues to be one of its kind Marketplace for Daily meals curating the highly unorganized Daily meal/Home Like meal business. We quickly realized that there is latent demand, but new customers are a bit skeptical in trying out something very new to what they had experienced all this while. Our perseverance paid dividends and FoodAbhi is quickly transforming the way Mumbaikars look at Daily meals with a scaleup in Pune shortly.

6) Make sure you have the Working capital figured out – In the current scenario and as a fellow entrepreneur I will strongly recommend new entrants to figure out their Working capital for at least a year. No wonder how good the idea is if you can’t survive, you can’t prove the potential and can’t raise funds. So buckle up and tighten the strings from the word go and figure out what are essentials and good to haves from available resources.”

To conclude I wish to quote the famous movie “300”: “If the sun gets blotted with arrows: You got to fight in the shade” so get ready friends and be passionately practical. Cheers!!

About The Author:

Amit Dube is the Founder and CEO of FoodAbhi.com, an online Marketplace for delicious, hygienically cooked, daily meals which has more than 400 meal options across 50 food partners spread across Mumbai. FoodAbhi.com is trying to revolutionize the Dabba culture of Mumbai and make Dabba’s cool again.

With new and emerging concepts hitting up the Indian food space, 2015 saw seventeen deals in the space with an increase in investment flow by 93 per cent to $130.3 million.

According to Chennai-based Venture Intelligence, food technology start-ups attracted $130.3 million investments between January and September 2015. The five deals in 2014 brought in $67.7 million and six deals in 2013 $42.06 million, reported Business Standard.

This year's top three deals are $16.25 million pumped in by Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners and Matrix Partners into TinyOwl, $16.5 million by SAIF, Norwest, Accel and DST Global in Swiggy and $60 million by Temasek and Vy Capital in Zomato.

Experts also said that food start-ups would continue to thrive for five years and the popular one will be Zomato, Quinto, ChefHost, MeDine, Momoe, DineOut, BigBasket, HalfTeaSpoon, Eatlo and Fresh Menu.

Investment in food start-ups rises 93 per cent in 2015 "We have seen immense growth in the last one year in Mumbai. TinyOwl has partnered more than 4,000 restaurants," said Harshvardhan Mandad, co-founder, TinyOwl.

"There is huge potential and more start-ups will grow substantially over the next five years with slight changes in the business model. They may be acquired early," said Vikram Gupta, founder and MD of IvyCap Ventures.

Online food delivery in India grew 40 per cent to Rs 350 crore in 2015 and accounted for 17 per cent of the online services market, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). Restaurant discovery portal Zomato launched its ordering service in April.

Investment in food start-ups rises 93 per cent in 2015 Hyperlocal delivery services, such as Roadrunnr, which received an investment of $11 million in June and Delyver, which was acquired by Big Basket in the same month, have latched on to this growth. "There will be significant value creation in online food ordering, and a mobile-only approach is the way to win. TinyOwl is a part of our broader portfolio of investments in local services and this will be an important area," said Rishi Navani, co-founder and MD, Matrix India.

According to Sarath Naru, managing partner of Ventureast, "We are staying away. One of the things we look at it is a business should have backward integration." 

Valuation in the segment is another challenge, according to investors. "They are seeking valuation of three years from now. But competition is also increasing. People are realising if you are looking at 20 companies, you do not necessarily have to work with the one seeking the biggest valuation," said a venture capital investor.