Mr. Rohit Malhotra, India Head of Business, Barcelos
Restaurant industry is a growing business which keeps evolving and developing as per the consumer preferences. There are a number of factors that will cause existing restaurant trends to keep innovating the new trends. Below are few of trends to watch out in 2017 in restaurant industry:
- Food based apps: As the technology evolving and people becoming more and more tech friendly, the year 2017 will see the use of table-reservation apps or food based apps to increase more and more. These applications help users to book tables in advance and it manage the tables if there are people waiting to be seated. These tools also helps the restaurants to keep a high demand of its customers on busy nights, and even better, to increase traffic on slow nights. Now a days, majority customers also prefers the online table booking as it’s a quick process and they prefer booking the tables in advance instead of arriving at the restaurant and facing a long waiting line. So the trend is here to stay on.
- Multi Cuisine: India is a growing market where consumer preference keeps changing. People of India are now more educated about foods hence they don’t want to strict to one type of cuisine and are prone to experiments with food. Hence the multi cuisine is one big trend to watch out in the coming year.
- Casual Dining:Â The restaurant industry in India is mainly driven by the young population which opts for casual dining even when they want to catch up with friends. As Indian consumers are increasingly dining out, particularly in urban areas and urbanization, changing lifestyle and food preferences are giving impetus to the F&B industry. The customers trends are gradually moving from the fine dine to a more casual dining culture and the trend is to continue in the coming years.
- QSR: Quick service restaurants are a mainstay of the Indian food service market. QSRs have established their footholds in the major cities and are now expanding into smaller cities with smaller formats. To withstand the competition, most of the players are customizing their menu in terms of flavours, pricing and services to meet Indian consumers’ inclinations.
- Malls will be preferred location: The existing restaurant brands and also the new brands entering into the industry are now eyeing the shopping malls as their preferred locations to create family dining options. Many research reports have also revealed that even at times of financial distress people will not stop eating and the F&B industry will be constantly growing. Factors like value for money, quality service and experimentation in cuisines have become the core competence for any restaurant in the industry. Considering the food revolution and consumer preferences and with the aim of expanding their business and tap more and more customers the restaurant brands do not want to leave the malls untouched.
- Entrepreneur’s entry into the industry: Passion doesn’t just drive entrepreneurs; it often leads them to their highest, best opportunities. As today’s next gen is well educated and well travelled so they have knowledge of good food and understands the food. Hence their love for food and habit of experiments will lead to give industry more and more new entrepreneurs who will be bringing the new concepts, theme, chef-led innovations into fusion cuisine and so on. Hence, it is the time for home-grown successful entrepreneurs to invest their knowledge, expertise and experience in helping young businesses to grow because this is what industry needs to keep evolving so that we can set the standards high.
