Ohri’s has grown from one restaurant in Hyd to 35 outlets, 15 brands, says its MD Amar Ohri

Hyderabad’s culinary scene, influenced by the Nizam’s rule, has been successful in placing its heritage dishes on the global map. While Hyderabadi Biryani, Haleem, and Pathar-ka-gosht, among others remain to be the crowd pullers, the city has made space to accommodate varied palates too. Catering to a diverse customer base are the 1,600 odd restaurants in Hyderabad holding a market share of over Rs 5,000 crore, in the organised segment.

However, very few businesses in F&B sector have been able to thrive from the past four decades. In conversation with Bizz Buzz, the Managing Director of Ohri’s Group, Amar Ohri delves into the changing dynamics of restaurant business and the success formula to keep a brand profitable for more than a decade

Are there plans of entering a new city with any of the existent brands?

Right now our focus is to grow in Hyderabad. We have around 35 outlets and 12 to 15 brands in the city. The new fast growing brands within the company leading our growth are Qaffeine and Cake Nation. Launched post-Covid, it is our QSR (quick service restaurant format) wherein we have 10 outlets of Cake Nation and nine Qaffeine. Hyderabad is giving us the opportunity to expand and grow so we are making the best use of that before entering into any new geography. Qaffeine, Cake Nation and Sahib’s Barbeque by Ohri’s are going to grow further in Hyderabad. This year we will add another two to three Cake Nation outlets and at least one or two Qaffeine outlets, also flagship/ experience centre of Qaffeine is coming up soon in Jubilee Hills. After Hyderabad, the route we are mulling on to expand Qaffeine and Cake Nation is, Andhra Pradesh, Bangalore and other metro cities of South by 2025, before we look at entering North India.

What was the learning that made you rebrand your restaurant?

When a restaurant needs to get upgraded, needs to get a complete new avatar as it is irrelevant at that moment, we decide to do a complete makeover. That is a part of the strategy to reinnovate and reinvent restaurants regularly. Temporarily one of our brand Uppu is closed down, we will be relaunching the menu with thalis and all this year at the same location. We felt that the menu, offering and pricing needed to be changed given the current food trends. What we were offering was a pan South offering, now we are going more regional with Andhra and Telangana dishes.

How is the F&B sector evolving in the city?

Hyderabad is one of the most exciting cities for food currently in India. We are seeing a plethora of brands and trends arriving as the city is growing, becoming more cosmo and is offering bandwidth for people to try new things. Hyderabad is going to see lot more food brands come in from across cities.

And, how has Ohri’s evolved over the last 40 years?

There has been a beautiful amount of learning for us. For instance, we rebranded Ming’s Court at Banjara Hills to Mings & Mee, this year. It was a complete exercise to rebrand the menu, do the interiors, so that is very successful. Then, there is creating new sub-brands within the Group such as QSR for coffee called Qaffeine and for cake called Cake Nation. So, we are looking at the trends and have decided that as and when required we will make those makeovers to stay relevant. At the same time we are also doing flagships this year, Tansen is the Indian flagship, while the coffee flagship for Qaffeine will come up soon.

While legacy brands mostly opt to be recognised with a single brand, Ohri’s has expanded widely…

Almost 25 years back when I joined my father I realised that we did not have many options. As the city grew it gave me the opportunity to create brands. That is how the expansion of Ohri’s happened, where I got the creative freedom and the city’s available bandwidth to create new restaurants. We have always brought in some innovation, some new theme, something new to the table. What we realise that it is also okay for legacy brands not to expand. If they bring out a product and they do it well over decades that is also a valid business strategy. It is the personal choice of the owner whether they believe that the brand is scalable or not. So, it is completely okay for certain brands to be iconic in a city for decades. At the same time certain brands that we are developing now like Sahib’s, Cake Nation or Qaffeine are designed to grow.

Amidst a trend of restaurants dedicating major investment into decors, where does the uniqueness of food served stand in their offering?

The oldest restaurant in our Group is now 47 years which is the Eatmore outlet at Basheerbagh. For a restaurant to survive more than four decades means that the fundamentals are strong. What does that teach us, in the food business the fundamentals of product and consistency is critical for the business. We have seen that post-Covid there has been an exuberance of crowd wanting to eat out. In this exhuberance many restaurants have come into the city, and we firmly believe that every restaurant has to get their fundamentals of food and service first right. Even with Tansen it has taken us seven months to build this place and two months to perfect the menu. Typically in Ohri’s we prepare ourselves for at least 10 to 20 years of longevity of the restaurant.

Is that one of the reasons behind restuarants shutting down shop?

I am also reading that there could be a saturation and over supply problem that we could be facing soon, because people are launching thinking that there is enough crowds out there but there is market fragmentation happening for sure. So for legacy brands like us and others in the city where the loyalty has been built over decades it is not much to worry about, but for new comers where they have to find their voice in this crowd, and be able to get consistent fundamentals out, is always a challenge, and it’s not an easy walk which businesses are not realising.

Where does Hyderabad figure in the list of leading F&B cities of India?

Historically, Hyderabad has always been a foodie city. People of Hyderabad know their food, and taste. The city has a great heritage and name in the food domain. Now we are seeing an influx of all the best in the world trends arrive to Hyderabad which is magical. Thanks to the explosion in IT, and influx of people coming from across India, we are getting to experience taste much sooner than before. With the advent of Instagram and social media, people are looking at trends, and innovating. Hyderabad is now catching up, but if we take the regional food, the city is leading. The number of restaurants offering Telangana and Andhra cuisine is phenomenal.

How has online food aggregators changed the business dynamics for restaurants?

The online food aggregators are a new habit amongst people, there is no denying that they have become a habit of all our lives now. The convenience, the comfort is picking up in everyone. But I also believe that few brands are better suited for the aggregator and not all brands. For instance, Cake Nation as a cloud brand is very successful where people order their cakes online but for fine dine and some of our restaurants it has not worked that well. We believe that where we are experiential, we want to be experiential, as the experience of dining-in for people cannot be replaced.

In this social media age, how do restaurants deal with feedbacks?

Technology is a tool with both positive and negative uses. It has helped us and it is easier for us today to check on how things are as feedbacks are easily put out. So, in my case feedbacks help us to take a stock of what we are doing, how we are doing and realign ourselves. Customer’s voice fundamentally tells us if our roots and vision are aligned.

What has changed for the F&B sector post-Covid? Did they take up cutting costs to compensate the losses and lose authenticity?

For our fraternity Covid was the most difficult time that we had to pass through. As a silver lining post-Covid people’s excitement to get out there exploded and for that reason F&B exploded too. When we look at F&B, we look at the fundamentals, we believe that if the fundamentals get changed then the validity of the business itself is at threat. If any brand cuts cost at the expense of consistency and quality for the customer it may not be healthy for the brand itself. Why do brands stay relevant, because they stand on their fundamentals, so cost cutting would be a big alarm.

Does India have adequate training institutes to produce skilled workforce?

Unfortunately India does not have. We need a lot more and also we need a lot more people getting excited about this industry. On the flip side I have noticed that with technology in-hand today they have the ability to follow and learn the trends from across the globe. I am seeing young chefs who are really changing the game now as they are thinking on terms of global level. My reading is that in the next couple of years we will see lot more Indian restaurants feature in the top 100 list of restaurants in the world, simply because the new India is breaking path ways and creating phenomenal experiences.

What is your comment on the recent raids by food safety authorities?

As a fraternity all of us are working with the department as hygiene is paramount and it is one of the fundamentals of our business. We are working with the government to see that more training happens and better hygiene is provided.