 Hello and welcome everyone to the first to the fourth virtual conference by Restra India. Today's discussion will revolve around road ahead for Restra and real estate industry. Mr. Aftermath of COVID-19. I'm Pritima Bhardwaj, project head webinar series at franchise India. The agenda to be discussed during this session is how landlords and tenants interact over the coming months, focusing on price discovery and asset management, capital expenditures, limited to maintenance only by restaurants and much more. Let me start by laying out the ground rules for attendees. The discussion will go on for approximately 60 minutes. This will be followed by Q&A session for the next 15 minutes. If you have any questions during the course of the discussion, you can post them through the Q&A option at the bottom of your screen. Mentioning your question, if it is directed to any specific panelists, we will take up questions post the panel discussion. Please participate in the poll during the webinar. We would also like to request all the attendees to keep the question within the scope of the discussion here today. We request all attendees to join our social handles for Restra India to get continuous updates on the industry. On Twitter, we are called Indianrestcom. On Instagram, we are restaurant.india. And on LinkedIn, we are called restaurant India. Moving on to our panelists now. Our panelists today with us are Shashi Kumar, Brigade Enterprise Limited. Mr. Yogeshwar Sharma, Select Infrastructure Private Limited. Mr. Varunthuli, Yamcha, Food INC catering. Noshi, I'm Asian Delivery. Mr. Sharad Bhattra, Cafe Deli Heights. Mr. Saurabh Kanijo, Director Kailan and Mr. Rajneesh Mahajan in Orbit Malls. Let me now introduce our session moderator for today, Mr. Ritu Madhya, the Editor-in-Chief of Entrepreneur India in Asia Pacific. I would now request Mr. Ritu to start the session. Over to you, Ms. Madhya. Thank you very much, Pritna. And a very good afternoon to everybody who's joined us here today for this session, which we are doing really to understand what is the way forward for the real estate and the restaurant industry, once we get ready to come out of the lockdown, as is expected to happen sometimes in this month. Now there are different theories as to, you know, how for the last one, one and a half months since we've been in lockdown, they have been different theories as to how restaurants and real estate companies and mall developers in particular, along with the kind of residential and shopping complexes where restaurants are located, should sort of work together with each other. Now I think after hearing probably our Finance Minister today, we can safely bet that there is not going to be a lot of sops going to come from the government side. And therefore I think as an industry and as people who are working together, we need to get our act right and make sure that we're able to find ways and means and find form of our own clusters to make sure that we are able to achieve the best in the situation that we are into. Also, given the fact that, you know, I always feel that essentially we humans are very social people. If you make us fair some, we go in. But if you give us the safety parameters, you say that we are safe, nothing's going to happen to us. We come out, we like to meet our friends, we like to meet our folks and celebrate life. So therefore I think it's now between the real estate industry and the restaurant industry to really make sure that the fear with which we have lived for the last 60 days is somehow taken out of us. The only way to probably do it is that we can make our surroundings, our places where we invite our customers, our malls, our restaurants, extremely hygienic, our extremely places where they do not feel the fear walking in. So of course, there are a lot of things that we are not going to talk about. I have a very stellar panel here today. We're actually going to give us great insights as to what can be achieved today from mall operators perspective as well as from a restaurant's perspective to be able to fight this together and so that we are able to get the customers right back. So let me start this discussion with Rajneesh. Rajneesh, you know, you're sort of managing in orbit malls and you're sitting in Maharashtra perhaps, which is probably the worst effective place. So, and I mean, while in Delhi and some Karnataka, we are seeing some lockdowns being opened, but in Maharashtra we're not seeing it of course, what's coming there. And there are different theories which are rotating around, which is not even opening of stores or probably not even opening some stores and opening other stores and so on. So, you know, as a mall operator, what is the way forward you see for opening the malls and if at all the malls are open as and when partial lockdowns are happening. What, how do you propose to bring the safety and the customer from a customer's mindset into the mall as well as the restaurant stores so that the customers can walk in. Good evening, Ritu. Thank you for having me on this panel. I think first of all, what as a nation we have done was most required to go through this lockdown so that our medical infrastructure gets time to get prepared to handle larger volumes and I think is a welcome move. And we have handled the situation much better than many other countries. At the same time, there's a need to open up the economy and make sure that the jobs and the economy is working and we are not dying because of other reasons than the disease or health. My belief is the shutting down, locking it down was a very binary decision. You take a call and everything comes down to a standstill, but opening will be a journey. So whether this opens with odd and even or whether it opens with the restriction is going to be a journey and it's important for the industry to go through that journey. Now it may take two to four weeks in that opening up. But that's how the process is going to be. And for that we all have to work out solutions and find ways to make sure that we do it in a safe manner and we do step by step along with government so that the health crisis does not come back. From a mall's perspective being, if you compare any set of shops when you have 100, 150, 200 shops together versus a mall which has 150, 200 shops in under one roof and under one environment. I think the ability to control is far, far higher because everything is managed by one setup. We can control the entry and exits. We can control the number of people coming in. We can control the movement of people. We have health checks. Everybody is going to a temperature check, employees, the customers. We have technology that can be deployed for appointments. We can control the emergencies. We have tie ups with health. So our ability to control is far higher. The amount of hypnotize and monitor is much higher and our ability to respond to any emergency is far higher because they are all controlled environment. And hence I feel for economy to open up malls can be a good starting point. And I mean, of course, malls is something everybody would want to see them open. I mean, you know, there is so much and if we just go by the China example today, there has been so much pent up demand that is there with the customers today and they really want to go out. Particularly in big cities, the houses are not that big. You know, people don't have farmhouses in big bungalows, like probably our smaller cities do. And sometimes it's easier to live there where everybody wants to leave the confine of their house and go out and, you know, just be able to probably chill in that sense. So, you know, I mean, again, as I'll come back to it, the safety becomes a very important factor. So let me also ask Shashi and your Geshwar as to how the safety parameters are going to be working in malls because that is going to be fundamental for customers coming in. So as far as mall goes in terms of the safety, there is already a very lengthy aspect of SOPs are being discussed and at a various level at a detailed level and every mall are already in the process of implementing it. Probably before the respective cities, you know, the government allowing the malls to open. It starts as as simple as from the point of social distancing while, you know, the ingress and the aggress of the mall, and also you take the elevators escalators, which are very, very convenient point of the vertical transport for customers within the mall. And so to the extent how the sanitization level can be addressed in these common areas, you did, for example, take the restrooms and all these elements are being according to a very dilute for each there are standard operating procedures. There's a processes for every given processes. There are also sub processes and then comes the monitoring become one of the sub processes. So to the extent at every aspect of the touchpoints of the customers in the mall, we eat from the ingress point, aggress point, the common area in terms of seating, the common seating, all the restrooms and taking the components of a retailer in our malls. And there are different kind of retailers. We have small retailers, we have anchor and retailers, we have essential service retailer, we have restaurants, we have saloons. So these, and while they have their own SOPs, how it can overlap with the mall SOPs. And so to the extent that there is a direct owners on the retailer end, and there is a supervision from malls end. So it is, it will be a day of collaboration, so way forward the way I see it. And though the malls guys have come up with, you know, hello. Yeah, so their own set of SOPs, but what is going to define, as in to start with, what is going to define, we all don't know another one month down the line once these SOPs are implemented. Say there is a 10, 15 sets of SOPs we have implemented. But I'm sure out of that three or four SOPs and then those aspects will change, you know, because only when you start implementing, you will come to that. That's not working out from the point of objective of the safety and the customer confidence. So we will start improving on that. And then as you go down the line one month. We will also come up with the new sets of points from those aspect of safety and, you know, the management, the objective of the larger objective of the business at the same time keeping the business. So these are the some of the plans which has been already been done. One can get into the detail. But yes, philosophically, this is what has been put in place. And the third element which I see is, you know, even if to start with even on a Sunday or a busy weekend. Today we are in a situation where we will not be even able to accommodate even if there's a larger turnaround of customers coming to the mall because we can't stop them. So and that might become a deterrent even from a point of observation and moderation. And it might be a counterproductive for the malls as well as for the retailers. So how do we control the crowd management? That is going to be another important aspect for the malls as well as the retailers. Probably we have to have come out with a token system and the way I see it, the customer management, the crowd management in the mall is going to be very, very crucial. And so to that extent, each mall has to work with their respective retailers. What kind of a program are they doing it and how every retailers and mall has to work together. And it's only another three to four months is going to be a lot of learning and a lot of trial and error and a lot of changes which is going to happen. Other than the basic hygiene, you know, basic standard set of standards, which we are, you know, which all the malls are already planned, be it your, you know, entry point of, you know, temperature check and scanning and all this stuff. And go to even to the back end aspect of, you know, your material movement. Let's see, like for example, in my mall, there are about 10 restaurants and each restaurant guy has about at least 15 to 20 different vendors coming in a day. Okay, so they all bring their materials. Okay, that means I'm talking about almost 200 vendors a day. So that is going to be a huge movement and huge system of scanning. How the now every retailer cannot have their system. So how the mall and the retailer come together and as in restaurants, customer retailers in the mall come together and put up a common system. So no one has probably gone to this level. But what I'm saying is this is this is going to be the challenge for the mall as well as the restaurant or any retailer for that matter to come up with such plans. But yes, there are certain basic plans already been put in place. And the malls professionals are very much aware of the dynamic and prepared to handle it on a dynamic basis and evolve on that and ensure that the monitoring aspect also is built in and achieve the purpose of the safety and hygiene element, because it's only through that can build the confidence. That's that's what is it in our planning and understanding. Sure. Thanks, Ashina. I think that is helpful, particularly your thought about having a common system for being able to scan the hygiene level could certainly come handy. Yogesh Yogesh, there is, you know, just to sort of take up what he's saying, do you think smaller stores, particularly in restaurants have already got challenged in terms of being able to run their stores. Do you think they are going to be able to continue If the lockdown still keeps on continuing and from a look of it, restaurants don't seem to be getting relaxed. I mean, while offices are opening and essential stores are opening and so many other things are opening restaurants still don't seem to have it easy. So, you know, how are you managing and what are you telling the food service retailers right now it's become food service first right for restaurants in malls today. So I mean they have the most important tenants that you have in your in your complex. So how are you managing Yes, I mean, thank you. Thank you, Rajivish and Shashi. I mean, they have partly answered. No, this is a very unprecedented situation. And best of the lawyers drafted their agreements without having pandemic as as one of the possibility. So I mean it has beaten everybody's imagination. So we have done enough theory at the moment. I mean, I would like to state here that I mean all the malls have come together at least to discuss how I mean sky has put us together that we know how we can have the same we all have common issues. So how do we address those common issues and instead of I mean no reinventing the wheel we learn from each other. Second point I want to say that is that like FNB has is a very, very integral part of shopping centers and going forward it will also be so only challenges for the in between time this in between time. So it's very difficult to predict any timelines that we have been thinking through that maybe this month it will open next month it will open. So first is when we open. Second, how long does fear psychosis which we were talking about customer will take time to know really understand whether I'm in the malls are safe or not but on a on from city walks point of view on behalf of all the other malls also I can safely say that malls are doing the best possibility you know solutions they are more equipped to handle situations rather than any other markets and all that having said that there is no guarantee that I mean on nothing will go wrong in the mall. There are too many people too many angles in the mall I mean too many consumers vendors retailers staff all kinds of people come so it is it is it is definitely going to be a big challenge. At the moment on theory whatever can be done I mean we have all thought through and now the test will happen only when the malls are allowed to open, which is likely to be very soon I believe, then second challenge coming to the category of FNB FNB is going to I mean take some time for sure I mean some is to be defined and it's very difficult to define at the moment and I feel this is a temporary situation but difficult to define how long it will continue but I'm a strong believer that it will come back for sure and malls are shopping centers are very very equipped to handle the situation going forward it will be put to test I mean at the moment is theory so nobody can predict the how things will go. That's what I would like to say. Sure. No I think that that's that's certainly how the situation is currently. Now let me see the side of things from restaurants point of view. So let me start with you Varun. You know as as a restaurant owner you have stores both within malls and in high streams. And of course you know the fact that people already different opening by 60 days and it looks like it's going to be some more days from here on. How are you going to sort of and real estate and rents are a huge cost for a restaurant owner. So how how are you sort of going your way through it. Secondly I feel the second big cost is the cost of your employees and if you know I mean for in my office I can only call about 30% of the people of my entire workforce. Now if our government wants to give this directive to a restaurant also then your menus are going to be extremely limited. And what you're going to and how you're going to be able to service would need a complete restructuring to happen. So what are your thoughts on how do you plan for the lockdown to open and how do you manage these costs now. So, Ritu thank you for having me on this panel. Thank you. Ayubeshwari Shashi G and Rajini Shree for sharing your thoughts. I think it's definitely up to the malls to convince people that the malls are in fact going to be safer going forward. I think it is this fear psychosis that has caused people to think that closed environments are not safe. Of course you know we leave them leave it to the malls because they have a lot many stores to kind of cover. As far as our situation is concerned you know just before lockdown in the month of March the largest slowdown happened in the malls. Because people didn't maybe want to go into a closed environment. The other thing that happens with someone like us is that we are a very densely packed restaurant. For example in Select City Park our restaurant is only 800 square feet. So our challenges are a little greater because we are able to generate a lot of volume out of a small space or in the past we've been able to. So the challenge will be how do we kind of speed up what was already fast already and how do we kind of operate. I think the good part is that we operate out of base kitchens. So we do a lot of production in our large base kitchens. So having fewer staff in the outlets may not affect us so much. I think we'd actually support that to have fewer staff in the outlets. I definitely think that people will want lesser service staff for sure. And as far as the kitchen is concerned we could operate shifts. So rather than have five people in one department let's say the walk department throughout to have like one person for three hours and another person for three hours. And I think that is how we will basically take a look at it. I think the production is something that people take at our end. As you know we also have a catering business. So our staffing is not limited to just restaurants. We have restaurants delivery and catering. So we have about 500 people to support. So as of now what we have done is that we have left kind of a lot of the decisions to our team members. A lot of our team members have come back to us and been very very supportive. Some of them have taken leaves on rotation. Some of them have taken you know voluntary salary cuts. And they you know I would like to add that it's completely without any pressure from us it's completely support from our own staff. That being said so far we've not followed a single person. I don't I don't see at least for the next six months for us to be able to kind of follow people because when we have to come back as well. I think we need the people who've been with us all these years. So I definitely think you know the staffing is the most important at this point for us. We have pivoted a little bit to delivery. We have a base kitchen so we are doing delivery out of our base kitchen and that is not done very badly. I think it's done OK so I do expect a little bit of delivery to happen from malls as well. And I don't think anybody is doubtful of the fact that restaurants will bounce back. You know I think I'm I'm the most contrary to my meetings with someone like Yogeshwaji will tell me that I'm usually negative but that's more to negotiate. I'm usually a very positive person when it comes to business and outlook. So so when it comes to business and outlook I definitely think that we're going to bounce back. It's like Yogeshwaji said it's what do we do in the meantime. You know so what do we do in the eight months or 10 months or four months that that you know to stay alive. How do we kind of keep everybody together so that when we do come back and when demand because it's almost going to be a situation where there's not going to be demand for about a certain period. And then suddenly overnight things are going to change just like just like the the the lever switched off. And I think we need to be there to catch the demand coming back. You know overnight a vaccine is announced overnight you know people lose their fears overnight you know they get they get tired of sitting at home. I think overnight people are going to want to kind of come back. I think one of the things that that that the malls can definitely do is to you know we signed up with malls because malls have a certain amount of football that comes in on a on a on a daily basis. Now if a certain number of people are allowed to come into a mall a lot of the people who come into a mall are just browsers you know. So for example they'll just come they'll just want to walk around in the mall. I think this is the time that malls will need to focus on the people generating business. So I think that the people who are going to go to the stores and buy something should be given more incentives. And I think the people who are just going to come into the mall just to look and maybe not not not buy. I think I think that you know should be that's the only way you can control crowds. You know our experience is not with the other malls I think our experiences would select and I think that they do get a fair bit of people you know on Saturdays and Sundays you can't stand. But I would also say that half those people may not be shoppers. I don't see shopping bags with many people they create an entire life and environment of the mall. They come to enjoy certain brands that might have presentations like car shows and you know other things. But I definitely think that we should focus a shift to consumption only time spent in the mall I think will go down. But I think coming back to your question about managing costs I definitely think that if all our stakeholders are with us. If our staff is with us our vendors so far have been with us very few vendors have actually even asked for pass payments. You know we have credit systems in our restaurants as you know. I definitely think that some concessions would help us you know remain and remain confident of the mall partners that we have signed up for so many years. Thanks for it. Sort of let me ask you this. I mean you know now the fact that of course particularly if there is a franchise system also involved. What is your opinion would be the store opening strategy for most of the restaurant owners going forward. I mean you know obviously you must have signed up leases. There were stores to be opened at some point of time. So how are you going to look at this situation wherein you know you cannot go ahead. Instruction cannot happen because the rent was going to start at some point of time. So how was anybody who is looking to open more stores were looking to open more stores in 2020. What is the way forward for them. So first of all thank you so much for having me on the panel. I personally feel like everybody else feels that restaurants will come back and bounce back in a very good way. It's just a problematic time which is all of us are currently facing. We all self pass through together in terms of franchise you know stores opening and expansion. Everything will be put on hold as of now because time right now is to consolidate. There is no way anybody would be wanting to you know invest some new money into new restaurant at this point of time. There is always a time because there are so many restaurants which would need a lot of support which which are already being run. So we would you know kind of slow the pace of new restaurants coming up. We would rather consolidate restaurants make sure the restaurants which are already existing in the malls in the high streets existing franchises are completely supported in best manner from whether. Supporting them with their you know hygiene levels whether reassuring practices which have to be done for all the restaurants. Everything you know the complete package has to be done the complete mindset which has to be re-inculcated to run restaurants. We'll spend our energy there before we get into the franchise you know expansions are rolling out and once the economy post you know covid vaccine comes in. Starts bouncing back we can always get started and you know there are good times for you know store rollouts and expanding that time because everybody feels that the economy is going to bounce back in a very big way. Sure no but I was talking more about the store rollouts which were in the middle which you were in the middle of I mean you know. That we will complete for sure but rather than completing let's say within the time period of 2-3-4 months whatever the stipulated time was they will get deferred by 3-4 months because we would have to see the complete situation in terms of what are malls you know doing for us how we are being you know kind of how are we striking a middle ground and so on and so forth. So once we'll be having clarity in terms of rentals in terms of you know staff coming back all those things because as I said the time is too consolidated right now the restaurant would be running we would focus on that the restaurants which are under construction of course half the money stuck or the 3-4 of the money stuck we would take a little more time to see the situation and then take it forward. Sure shut up let me come to you now Cafe Delhi Heights always has taken pride in you know opening big restaurants and therefore of course you know the costs have therefore been always been bigger. Now going forward do you feel you're looking going to look at a compact model for restaurants or do you think that with the with the kind of foundation that you have for the brand that would not fit in that is my question number one my question number two is that you know. You at any point of time thought that you know you could expand beyond in certain territories beyond let's say North India beyond Delhi. Is that going to be you know so those rollouts are going to happen for you now or do you think you want to wait now till things really settle down which we don't know might take an year or more. Hi Ritu thank you for having me on this panel. Yes I we actually do have two models currently in fact like select is what are probably the smaller format but we're already running and. And that's a pretty successful model. So yes as you said going forward the economic conditions are not really very pro towards opening big restaurants into the places though it is a need of the hour because we have a big restaurant you can have you can create a space out places have a different layouts more accommodating things but as cash flow and economic health is not so good and we're not so great to have from any investment going on. We will surely have been remodeling and restructuring and a lot of plans and thinking has been going on and going forward. We anyways have a huge menu to take care of so our kitchen so much bigger. Our staffing is high yes our product cost is I mean production cost is also high. The need of the hour will tell it I mean the problem is right now we really do not know how much time are we having on our hands when we go live. So honestly speaking I think when I'm 100% sure the malls are open because 80% stores are at the malls then then we would actually try and figure it out exactly we need to. I mean we're doing up but again as I said before it's all theoretical I mean practically it has to come on the working of it. And as far as going forward on a pan India basis on the different cities you're already there in four cities. So the toughest question is how the workforce is going to come back so major employment in food industry is a migratory labour. I mean as far as my chain is concerned so the biggest question would be how and when these migratory labour is going to come back and how are we going to do that first. And the foremost most important thing is we need to go live on our existing restaurants rather than taking into consideration of new cities. So whatever restaurants we have we have to make them first live then probably think of going into other cities. Eventually maybe down to nine six months one year one half because I don't know nobody knows the timeline one exactly we do have plans. We were already considering quite a few more cities but now it's completely on hold and smaller projects with bigger projects is a combination for us. Sure. I think that's probably going to be true for a lot of other folks also because you know I mean having big stores at this stage though in a way it's good because it gives you more spacing you know even if customers want to sit a little apart from each other. You already have room to make those adjustments but in smaller stores you really cannot make those adjustments very well. Rajneesh let me ask you this you know how are you going to sort of be working with restaurant owners for better spacing. I mean you know of course one of the way of hygiene is that wherein there could be more space between people who are sitting and having and therefore more less risk of the infection spread. That is one and secondly I mean the whole restaurant model is based on throughput of the real estate. That is not going to be as lucrative once a more bigger spacing out model is concerned in the restaurant. So how would you balance it out as a more loaner. I think you have to look at two phases. Phase one is immediately post COVID when things open up and then we have to look at normal business maybe six months down the line. So any restaurant that you open it is meant to run you know six to nine years ten years it is planned for longer period it is not planned for six months. So what we will do immediately post is not going to change the business model will sign a property for six months or eight months. You are investing couple of crore rupees in a restaurant for a longer period and you have to see the customer behavior on a longer period which is five to six years seven years down the line. So this three to four months is not going to change business model. Yes this three to four months is going to be about survival is going to be seeing how we make business sense in this four months with the available top line that we have and how do we handle the health issues within that period. So to my mind there will be restrictions on entries into a restaurant there would be requirement of space spaced out seating for customers. And there are two things which can help in that one if we can embrace technology where we have far better planning of customers coming in and knowing the table terms that we can manage to a technology platform where we can bring efficiency in ingress and the customers enjoying the time they have in the restaurant. And second I think if government can help us by extending the working time instead of shutting business at certain time in the evening they can extend working hours for the restaurant for couple of more hours in the evening which means we have more time to service our customers and we will be able to serve the same capacity of people as we have been doing in past. So these are the two things that comes to my mind. Yes the other question that you asked is about throughput and it's not only restaurant the entire retail industry works on throughput per square feet and that's how you measure your top line and that's how you measure your cost. Again in a short term to medium term there's going to be pressure and we need to find our ways to minimize cost during that period. Again the investments are always done for a longer period. Nobody is in business for six months. Nobody is looking at six months only. So we will come back and we will have growth coming in and we will have extensions coming in. So I'm not worried on a longer term. Sure. I would love for restaurant owners to take it up. I mean you know with the throughputs sort of finding a disruption happening in it. How are you going to sort of balance it out? So Ritu I'll take the lead just on this particular thing. It's basically as all the mall owners would need to do their part of it. The first thing is they need to reassure the customer comes in all the hygiene you know things are taken care of the complete scanning the complete sanitation all those processes put in place. Once they are able to reassure the customer coming in I think then it becomes a little easier for the restaurant to get that particular customer who's roaming around in the mall to walk into the restaurant also because if he's going for shopping he will also come in for a bite or a dining experience. And all the restaurants have to now basically work on a very big you know reassurance policy the trust policy of the customer that he needs to trust that if he's entering a particular restaurant all the hygiene levels are being taken care of all the sanitation are in place. And tech and trust two things will drive our restaurants forward from here because post COVID it's all about trust. It's all about technology. When I say technology basically all the restaurant owners have to adopt technology to the maximum level whether it is QR code whether it is you know contact list menu whether it is virtual tours of the kitchen whether it is you know technology based you know systems where you can scan the person while he's coming in. Whether he's suffering any you know from any kind of temperature or something so all this will depend on how we adopt to the new you know hygiene systems and the mindset of our staff also has to be you know completely change so that they're adopting each and every measure where you know hygiene is kept as a first thing which which they'll practice. So once the customer gets that kind of confidence into organizing that he's entering. I think we'll be able to get when our customers back. Okay. So now let me come to the more you know the more the more sort of conflict area which probably exists today between restaurant owners and the real estate developers is the rentals. The rentals. Now how are you trying to work out that economics. I mean understandably you know what the parties are going to be in a lot of strain financial strain that is if at all any different or going forward is going to happen. So have you sort of internally. I mean this is to more to the developers to reach me to your guest where she is that have you sort of thought of a way as to how you can ease out the pain or the financial stress for the restaurant owners going forward. I mean, could there be revenue sharing arrangements. Could there be differing of rent. Could there be some rent that could be done away or some concessions are made on the rentals as such. So do you do you at all these some possibilities that I mean it's like asking the government really. Shall I go first or go ahead. That was decided all the tough ones come your way. You're all eager to. You know firstly I wanted to just mention here that I have a huge respect for all the restaurant players and especially the ones which are with us because I see them working and no generally people say that the grass is always on the other side but when I look at them working all day I don't see the grass I mean very green on their side they work very hard and you know and they create things and consistently they have to create on creating one is easy but creating many dishes same same day same expectation same timing is not easy whether it's a mochi ice cream from Yanancha or a dynamite sushi or a Kailin special Tom yum soup or I mean even your kitchen go for the kitchen to tell the truth. I mean nobody can assume that somebody will go out to eat kitchen but I mean he can move people to have kitchen in his restaurant which is so lovely. So I have a firstly I have a huge respect for all of the restaurant players and thank you. Secondly I feel that these are unprecedented times so nobody knows how it is going to work out. I in my personal opinion I feel that malls are also very recent phenomena if you see the history of mankind malls are very recent and especially in India it's like maybe not even 15-20 years there is a history of malls. So as we got together and formed like created malls and the environment I think this is another time when we have to come together to find solutions. Every business model has some occupancy cost so that's how the mall is driven. So accordingly if the occupancy cost shifts here and there the business goes here while similarly now with new businesses nobody knows how the business is going to shape up. So the moment there is clarity on how the business is going to shape up then calculating the occupancy cost is very very easy thing. It is a mathematics, very very simple mathematics. So first we have to see how the business the top line comes out and then accordingly all the expenses and my only request and I know most of us restaurant players are very very transparent. They know all your numbers by the back of their hand and they know exactly what is the occupancy cost they can afford to pay. What is the salaries, what is the material cost and what is the administrative cost. So if everything is laid out very transparently I don't see any reason why there will be a conflict. Having said that even in good times when everything was right still some people were opportunists depending on which side of the you are. Some people take advantage of their position because it's a very good restaurant. So he may ask for a better deal or if the mall is in a better position they may ask for a better deal. Those things have happened in the past and will continue to happen. I mean that's human nature. I mean no matter how much you avoid it it happens. But at the same time looking at the bigger picture anybody who is looking at the bigger picture will not do such short solutions that I mean if I am in a better situation today I may demand something more. And if I say in Hindi I mean it's a matter of time. Tomorrow somebody may be very irrelevant for me. But day after tomorrow he becomes very relevant for me. One has to be very very long term and very very transparent. Transparency is the key because both of us are suffering. It's not that one party is having all the money and the other party is not. We also have tight business plans and we haven't got any benefit from the government. But we also understand that restaurant industry needs a special attention and special support at least for the meantime. And we have to see it from at least one year or 18 months horizon. Then there will not be a problem. If the mall decides to charge be a winner in the lockdown rental. If they are focused only on the lockdown rental then the game is not right. And even if the restaurant also feels that it's a long term game let's spread the pain and find creative solutions. And trust me all three of the panelists I mean on this side the restaurant side are very very creative. Not only in the food even in the deal making. Farun? Yeah, absolutely. Yogeshwal you already decided on the negotiation. No, not at all. No negotiations. Especially for this analyst. No, no. These restaurants are very good. These are good restaurants. I have to say, she would love to hear you on this. Yeah, certainly. Thanks for that. So I go by what Yogeshwal mentioned. It is difficult you all understand that. So the way I understand this one is of course this lockdown period. And the way Yogesh put it, the holistic view is locked on bless the forthcoming months till the end of this year. How are we going to look at this entire year? And you know, it's to everyone's guess that this year it's not going to be as same as last year. Definitely there is various variable which will happen in the businesses. And for to the extent of whatever the the uncertainties are there. So I'm sure all my pan all my my side of the panelists as in the shopping center professionals and and also the retail restaurant fraternity aspect of the leaders were here. They all agree that that both the people have to come together and both the people know exactly what is the practical. So the way one is to make it up into three pieces. One is during this lockdown period of 4060 days. And then you look at about September to October of this year. That's as a second phase where the malls will be allowed. Probably in some cities, the restaurants along with the mall will be allowed, but everyone has to go through these deterrents in the in the best interest of the safety of the customers. One has to follow that. But the deterrence towards the social aspect of our nature. So all these and along with the other aspect of the economy aspect which is going through a phase. All this is going to definitely, you know, not give us the same kind of a platform which has the mall and retail business we had. So how so they're definitely there. I'm sure every mall company and every individual retailer will have different positions, but invariably they will come to some kind of a women proposition as what location and creativity innovative. This is within everyone's forte. So I'm sure I don't see a challenge in every mall and every individual mall will have a different way of looking at it. But invariably they will address the issue. Invariably ensure that retailer is also is accommodated in the manner where they are able to go through this phase of till about the most challenging phase of whenever the malls been allowed say from June to September. That's according to me the most difficult phase or more uncertain phase. And once the both the partners as in mall. Hello. We can hear you. We can hear you. Okay. There's a bad connection so we can carry on with that if you want to add something or anybody. Yeah. So coming to the point that you are making about rentals. I think we all understand that these are tough times and there is a need to work together and have solutions which are helpful for both the businesses to survive and stay alive so that we can see the good times together. But you know, rentals will continue to be a factor of or rentals will continue to be driven by two factors. One is demand and supply for the space. And second is the business potential, the top line potential. So as long as there is a potential scene in long run the business demand or the alignment will has to be from a long term investment perspective so you cannot really look at short term pain and say I am not looking at the long term business potential. As long as people are reasonable, they understand each other and they're willing to work together. There would, there would not be any challenge in terms of finding a solution. And trust me, I have dealt with restaurants I don't find them less creative on commercials than what they are on the food side. I would believe that their food is on the back of their hand but trust me commercially they are very very sound and that is one of the reasons they are running a business and they all know how to handle these situations along with their partner. I have no doubts in my mind that we all will be able to come together and find solutions to sail through these times. Yeah, I'm sure. I see a lot of questions coming from our audience also in this, I particularly see Manpreet Bhulli raising his hand. So let's give them some audio also. Manpreet, you would like to ask a question? You need to, yeah, go ahead. Need to unmute please. Manpreet please unmute. There was no question, I think I was, I just went on a hundreds. No, no question so far. I think I'll bounce back in. Do you have a question Manpreet? Okay, he doesn't have a question, alright. So, I mean, you know, just before I ask all participants to participate, there is one question I have from Varun. Varun, I mean, given the fact that, you know, you have a smaller store in the mall, do you see an opportunity for takeaway for a bigger pie of takeaway coming into happening in your restaurant going forward? I mean, deliveries, of course, your other side of the business, but from a restaurant takeaways, do you see that increasing going ahead? So I think that, you know, so, so far, YamYamcha is now going to complete six years this year. And so far, we never encouraged takeaways and we never did deliveries out of the brand, right? So one of our challenges will be that, that the brand was always supposed to be a dynean. Now, over the last five and a half, six years for the malls, we have started with select. That was advantageous because that mean that people would have to come to the mall and to YamYamcha. As far as a mall environment is concerned, I think takeaways would be challenging because it would mean that they would need to admit even more people inside the mall. Unless we figure out a way that, you know, the takeaway can be taken from the outside, you know, a curbside pickup kind of a situation where, where, where from the exit, etc., that it can be picked up. So, so we are not against increasing revenues. I mean, we want to increase our revenues regardless. Now, the idea is that we are asking for the entire system to pivot to a ref share and a much lower ref share at that. Then what we have been used to, so that we employ all our staffs, we have prepared for, you know, when we have to come back. And if the sale is back to normal, or it is back above a certain point, we come back, you know, with the, with the, with the commercials. But if it is not, then then we still have costs to kind of go through. So we don't mind trying. We will try everything. We'll try curbside pickup. We'll try deliveries from the outlet. I mean, we're willing to try everything. We're willing to reduce the number of staff. We're willing to reduce the number of seats. Now, if, if I have a 40 seat restaurant in select, if I moved out to just 20 seats, for example, then obviously revenues will get affected. Right. I mean, we have to be pragmatic about this. We have to be, you know, clear about this that we should not have fixed costs on our head. And I definitely think that we need to work on creative solutions. So I think takeaway is for sure. I think malls will have to kind of figure out a way to kind of do takeaway at a particular point where guests are not coming in, you know, take away windows. I think certain malls will have outdoor areas. They can leverage those outdoor areas. You know, certain waiting areas or certain things where you might not have to come inside the mall, but you can come into the outside area of the mall, for example, and wait there or kind of, you know, pick something up from, from that point. So I think it's a little bit of realignment of the mall, but I think that if we all have to bounce back, I think the entire game needs to be to rebuild consumer confidence. So I don't think I as a restaurant can have half my menu and have a poorer experience for people, even with takeaways, I don't see how the food will be exactly the same. You know, there are certain products we do which are, which are restricted to dine in. And those experiences can't come in with, with, with a takeaway, we're willing to give it a shot. But I definitely think that we need to work on bringing consumer confidence inside the mall. I think these will just be interim measures. These will be two month, four month measures. I mean, if people start getting happy with just takeaways, then the full point of shopping centers and malls will go away, right? I mean, people will not be satisfied with. It's going to be counterproductive for the business. Right, so I think we should all take long term views. I think the entire thing is that, you know, as restaurants, we know how to, so we have, for example, all open kitchens. You can see exactly what's going on inside the kitchen, right? We have the duty to prepare food in a hygienic manner by taking all precautions. There may be a cook at home and there are, you know, I live in a society that has recently allowed part-time help to come back and everybody's scared because we don't know, you know, how they're coming in, how they're going to prepare the food, how they're going to handle the food. But in a restaurant, you know, okay, fine, that there's a certain minimum standard that will be applied. Even within HVAC systems, I think there are certain solutions that are coming up that are going to make it much easier for sanitation to happen off the air. So I really think that if you're talking about takeaway from the front of a restaurant, it still means those many people coming inside a mall, right? I mean, I mean, I don't see a situation where 30,000 people can come inside a mall in a day. That has to be something that will change over there. There will be restrictions that will come up over there. So yes, we will give every effort possible, but we definitely need the support of the malls. And I definitely think that both during the lockdown period and after the lockdown period, there has to be full support. And we have been, you know, we have been a small restaurant contributing a good kind of sum. And Sharad and Babar are in the same kind of space, you know, with the entire ref-share situation at very high percentages. In the past, we may have contributed much more per square foot as FNB operators than retail stores may have contributed also. So it's just the reverse. We are with the malls. We just want the malls to be with us. And we will try everything possible to make sure that business comes back. I think consumer confidence is key across. It doesn't matter whether you're a restaurant retailer, a mall or, you know, the tenant. You just have to have consumer confidence to come back. Yeah, Sharad, you know, I mean, what I was asking from Varun, let me sort of rephrase it for you. Now, when spacing is going to be there in a store, do you see an opportunity to do pods? And, you know, probably in the open area, you can have pods or small places which are enclosed to be done in the store so that there is a greater sort of safety measure, a hygiene factor that is insured to the customer. Do you see an opportunity for it? In fact, you know, let me add to this. Do you think IELTS can have pods in malls? Can have, sorry. Let's start with Sharad. I made the last line you said. I said the IELTS, the mall IELTS, can they outside the restaurants? Yeah, they have pods. See, the fact of the matter is that to everybody is right now working on, as Varun rightly said, the consumer confidence and everybody is trying to do their own thing. Making pods, segregation, spacing out, standardization, least touch points. Everything has been worked on. The main key factor which has to be involved in all the process is the economic factor. Unless the economic factor allows everything to happen, everything else will go for a toss. I can space out my restaurant. Really, I can create pods. I can create so many of the different things. We're going on to that one, maybe a little more, as I said, but everything has to make an economic sense going forward. An economic sense can only come in when the hand holding is happening with your stakeholders, with your vendors, with your staff, with everybody around it, and also with the government. Not to forget, government has started already charging sets over a lot of things and they have increased the prices of diesel, petrol, everything is going to get more expensive in coming times. The transportation is going to get expensive. Your supply chain system is going to get expensive. All the expenses are going to go higher. Everything is going to get so expensive. Everything can be created. It's just a matter of human brain. How you are thinking and how soon you can incorporate that and it's working well. Trust me, nobody is sitting idle, not thinking about it. When we already see that a lot of pictures going around on this website media and how the people are incorporating these things outside with the corona as much earlier. And we are very well aware of it and we are ready to do that. But how much sense will it make is the economic sense. Sure. Yeah, no, I do agree with you. Eventually, economics has to work out. So now I think let me start with some questions from the audience also. I see Tanuj Lohani has a question. Can we give audio to Tanuj, please? Tanuj, please unmute. Yeah, hi. Thanks. Am I audible to all? Yes. Hi. Very good evening, everyone. Actually, I have one very small question, which I would like to put to Mr. Rajnees Maharaj. So, sir, don't you think down the line, one year from now, from the retail outfit, which are there and malls, right, which are moving out of the mall, there may be different aspect which I'm just touching upon. One can be forced. Yes, obviously, there is a mall rental, which is on a higher side if there is a separate standalone shop versus a shop in a mall. The first aspect from point of view of that retailer would be forced. From the point of view of consumer, right, because now we have seen approximately around since the last two months, we are jam packed in our house's home, right. And now the question is about survivalism. The pandemic is going to start at the worst of getting started with the full pace in India. If we talk about the data of the last two months, right. Yesterday only we have bought the highest number of cases in India, right. The point where a consumer end user is going to plan set, right. Obviously, in today's scenario, this is going to be in case nobody is going out of from this home to the malls, right. In India, if we talk about generally is dumb as luxuries is still as of now if we talk about the entire population of India, right. I think. Would you like to take it up. Ritu, I could hear the question in bits and pieces but thank you, Tanu, your small question has some five questions within it. We have nicely packed that together. You know, India is a young country. And youth across the globe has been adventurous they have been more bold and they have been coming out. Also the health fear is starting or will get settled at some stage and people will start living with it and then you know we would know what is the outcome. But today if you have a cold or cup you know you need to be resting seven days do not come close to your family members so that they don't catch it and you go on in life. You know, and you are sure that if things go out of hand there is a medication available and as and as in when there is some kind of medication available. I think we will start living with it. We will say, Okay, I got it. Instead of seven days I need to be staying home and this is life goes on everything is not a life threatening disease in that sense. In the long run I see businesses bouncing back I don't see any fundamental structural change in society to say that retail or the shopping malls will not remain relevant. I do not see that we have this pause for a small time. And once we come out of this pause the life goes on the way it is you know that this health crisis has not caused any kind of structural change to the society it has not brought in any disruptive technology in which to say that in long run the businesses are going to be changing. I am not. Short term is something we need to look at we need to find ways to manage our cost. We need to find ways to manage and we need to manage our capacity utilization, especially in a restaurant business I see two capacity utilization one is the seating capacity front end capacity we have to maximize whichever limited manner government allows us to come out with and we have to maximize our capacity utilization of the front end consumer facing space and we need to find ways to maximize our production capacity in the kitchen. One may have to find ways to find new menu, which is more delivery friendly which is more takeaway friendly. What what retailers in apparel have done is that for online they have started finding new merchandise which is different from their offline store merchandise. So we need to learn from different industries and we need to understand on the kitchen how do we enhance our capacity and how do we maximize our capacity of production and see what products will work for takeaway, see what products will work for dining and see what products will be there for online delivery platforms and that's how we can see through this period. I had one Rajneesh I just wanted to ask one thing to all the like FNB players now we hear that the staff like the staff at the kitchen level have gone back to homes and that is also a constraint for the FNB players I mean is that right or It is, it is. It's a very big concern. I hope they do come back because if they think longer then they start getting comfortable in their own native town and since government is supporting a lot of native places where they live in so they're anyways getting free food, free accommodation so even if 30% stay back and 70% come back to their workplaces then also there's a huge challenge. This industry works on a lot of entrenchment. And the training will be a big cost because you know how to train the new staff and the consistency levels I mean that's a big challenge. Training is a double problem if you would have had the old staff there was a new plan to train because of this hygiene and everything after COVID kind of a system. But the thing is if you don't get your old staff back it will be a very big challenge for all of us. And at this point of time when government is opening towards the lockdown phone easing out things and they've also started trains to all these native villages and everything. The staff which was even stuck up here has also started leaving so we will have a very tough time to restart our whole engine or restaurant. The worst thing is if I have to say even if I have strong I can't open all my 25 restaurants and run go even if the government allows it will be in a very faced manner and it has to be very much planned. As many people I would get back as much of cash flow I would have a lot of things will be faced out maybe a restaurant every 10 days I have to open I mean I can't open all together. Yes, yes because there will be lack time for the training required to prepare the staff. That is why we are requesting you know even after the lockdown time period you need to give us some rent fee for training. I thought you were asking I mean we will go further one step further. Yogesh is saying that he will give cash back. Yeah, that's me. Incentive for opening, yeah. The number that you said is 1.10. I know happy answer but let's just tag on for a few more minutes. You know just wanted to know this because obviously government also has another procedure where you know they seal if there is a COVID infection that is found seal the place down for 10 to 15 days. So that's another big hiccup particularly for malls you know even if you get your staff ready and open up and then you suddenly realize the infection came in the whole area got sealed. So what is the falls answers to this? Yeah, go ahead go ahead. Initially you know I mean it was very stringent that even I mean there were some talks that even the person who was managing the restaurant or the place that has to I mean has to be really really accountable for that but now there is a little bit of relaxation. My point here is that at some point in time we have to open up. We cannot be locked down forever. I mean that's the situation and their different opinions about you know about this situation. Some people are really raising their voice that it should be eased out quickly because this becomes a new normal and everyone eventually will be able to handle have immunity to handle this. So I feel that this is one very scary thought as a responsible mall. We also feel that if something goes wrong then who should be held accountable because there are too many people coming without any you know we will ensure that they are passed through the tunnel. We ensure that the temperature is taken. We ensure that they have to say to we are able to trace that back but I mean in making anybody any place on a responsible especially the public place owner is not the right thing in my opinion. I have a point to add. So as we all know all these years the social media has been a blessing and a curse in its own way. So like we had a recent case and one of the delivery boys was being taken up for this corona passing on thing and the sentiment of the customers and the people had gone so drastically down that all related industries got affected. So we have to be very very cautious about that aspect also also that the social media is is responsible enough not to create a panic into the customers. And I would suggest in fact that the mall is going to have their own social media handles in very active way and making people realize that they are taking every possible step. I think most of them are already doing it and just getting the penetration to those things are much better. I mean looking at those things. I think I think Sharad made a very very valid point about social media. If you recently see last two days the photographs of some merchandise having fun going viral across and you know nobody is even realizing that they are stored in a Malaysian country is not even in India. You know and everybody's happy forwarding it to each other saying this is what you will see when it opens up and somebody really scan zoom into the price tag. And it is RM the currency is RM which is Malaysian currency on the merchandise and it can it is going viral. You know I got it from 20 members of my family and friends reply back to each one of them with that. The other thing which Ritu I said initially is that as a mall we haven't kept ability to screen we have an ability to monitor and we have an ability to respond. And while we do these three things actively we will have a very strong audit trail of all the SOPs to follow and we will ensure that we together with retailers are able to deliver high quality. Now accidents or slippage may happen we can't really guarantee that but as a controlled environment our ability to be delivering the services and safe environment is far far higher. And somewhere we need to start pressing and communicating and demonstrating it to the community. Sure. Shashi I know that some staggered opening for restaurants happened in Bangalore so can you give us something from there? Yeah so it's largely in high street but then what I heard is also not just restaurants particularly the even the other retailers. And moment they opened and when they saw some customers in the queue and again the government took some stand to close you know shut it down again with the commercial street or in turn I go for that matter. So but when it comes to mall I would say that's the advantage mall has given to a high street because that's exactly the point which every one of us are talking and trying to convey that in high street is very very difficult to control that. When it comes to the mall like what Rajnish mentioned even if it is a point of queue management or the crowd management we have largely better off placed to control that and then proactively ensure that we don't end up in such situation as it catches unwanted attention and to the extent becomes a counterproductive. Yes when it comes to mall you know when the restaurants are open prior to that itself we will figure out as in to what extent the restaurants can be you know work out in a manner where based on the tables and based on the social distancing element is you know achieved within a store within the restaurant. And when when it comes to the mall the same aspect meet in the interest aspect or even inside the common area. Sure we have some more questions coming service would give I think has a question can we give him the offer. Please unmute service. Yeah good evening everyone. I have a question. Can you hear me. Yeah. Yeah OK great. I have a question for the restaurant is here. She wanted to know you know given the situation and you know like everyone is agreeing that we don't really know how long it is going to take for normalcy to resume. We have like we are franchising us for for a brand and Pune called Rockamama. So we are moving ahead you know if you were to be able to look at expansions or to look at even maybe six months down the line or maybe eight months down the line. Do you think malls are still going to be a better bet than high streets or you know malls can probably move in customers better or will give more confidence to customers to consider them to open new outlets moving forward. That is one question. And if if I'm allowed I guess I'll just put forward one more question and anyone can probably answer that. The restaurant is that if what what challenges do you think if I if we were to open something on the lines of a high street QSR or a takeaway as opposed to a full service restaurant is that a more viable thing to do in the near future. Or would you still hold your confidence with with with a full service restaurant with spacing and etc etc. Thank you. I'd like to take that first. So I would want to quickly say that you know just like you are looking at expansion. We also had our own plans for expansion. We have other brands we have other locations that we are basically taking a look at. I think the entire thing will boil down to how the economics pan out. And I think that basically that if you can do your analysis on a on a 30 to 50 percent and see what what you can afford and then see whether you're able to take that for one year. I think that you know maybe post 12 months things will come back. Today you might even get an advantage of better rentals to be negotiated today. And if everything comes back to normal rentals may double at that point. So the idea is that if the economics are going to work out for you at a lower rental. You know your business. You know what you are earning right now. You should definitely take a look at it. I think you know developers that will that will kind of give some concession concessions and incentives for for coming in. You know some developers have been talking about giving capex benefits or or or putting down some capex. Some have been talking about months off of no rental to incentivize new projects to kind of open up. I think that that really you'll have to look at your economics on almost like a 50 percent of what you would have normally looked at. And if that makes sense you might you know do a deal today at a much lower rental and and and be able to take advantage of that two years from now. So it totally depends. You know I think malls will also want to give incentives to move people to kind of come in. You know if you know new projects or new areas or expansions certain malls I know select city walk had an entire plan of expansion. I don't know what they are going to do now. There was an entire area that was going to that was going to that was going to come up. So if they're going to build it out if they are going to build it out you know what kind of concessions will they give. How will they you know retain their current you know kind of tenants in there. You know all these questions are really economics at the end of the day. So I think that economics at 50 percent is something that people should anyways anyways do. You know it takes me back to my my PNL statement that I sent to Yogeshwaji right here six years ago. And the numbers are very different from what what finally happened right. I mean we were almost at across the number. Yeah so we were at 25 no no four times four times. I have to I have to go to Yogeshwaji sometimes to show him that his numbers he has to look at again to kind of go into that. So yeah so be be a little be a little guarded with it. I don't think consumer behavior is going to end completely if consumer behavior is going to end completely. Yeah and I think that at some level we will be doing a lot of damage if you're going to promote takeaways too much and deliveries too much because we're going to try and kill the notion that that people can come back to malls. You know if you make brands self-reliant and take away and deliveries those malls you know those brands will never open stores again. And if you are really worried and if you want to do a cloud kitchen then just do a cloud kitchen. Then why why look at QSR then just go into delivery directly. But I really think again it comes back to you know if we feel that dining is not going to come back if we ourselves are going to start promoting takeaway and delivery from within the malls. Those those are going to you know keep us afloat for six months or one year consumer patterns are going to change. They're going to be reliant moral delivery and they might not want to come into a mall again right. So so I honestly think the consumer behavior will come back. We know that there will be a cure or a vaccine. There's never a time where it's not going to happen or whether it's six months or six years is a completely different thing altogether. But yeah so so so I think I would be positive. I think that if we have support of the malls if we have support of landlords I will I will I will definitely think that that is a better place to be. And you know a mall has to think about 400 stores reopening. So they might be a little more rational in their approach a landlord who has a single store who may not even be rational with you tomorrow. Right so so you might have you know look at the people the good people in this business whoever supports the industry the most today. I think we'll we'll we'll kind of gain their confidence for many many years to come. You know people will remember that this was the time that we needed the help. Those who helped us today are the people who we will be with you know I'm hearing horror stories of friends who have independent properties where they are basically putting a gun to the head that leave tomorrow if you have to. Right so so so there are dangers at both sides and I really would urge that the mall and developers to look at the people who have given them the confidence and made the malls what they are over the many years. And and allow that confidence to come back and again the brands that will I mean the mall brands that will support the retail brands today are really going to be the winners in the long run in my opinion. Because tomorrow somebody will say that look select it so much for us during the bad time that we only want to be with select we don't want to kind of you know think outside. Very nicely very nicely. Okay so we are going to take the final two questions because this gentleman has been raising his hand for a very long time. Prasanna Sinarakar if we can have him online please please unmute Prasanna. Hello. We can hear you. Yeah so I have a question for the retailers and one for the infrastructure mall people over here. Does it make sense to close down the general non performing stores please don't. We decide to shut down these non performing stores and in case. Should mall have certain guidelines to get this closure done because generally what we have seen people those who do this closures are generally not very good with hygiene and one particular instance where this disease spread can be a devastating for the brand of brand image of the mall also. So I would like to know you do the online. Is it clear? She actually brings back my same question that you know if an infection is found in the mall and they either decide to seal it and if they are even less stringent over there and the cases increase then again there is a we are back to the same spin. You know, as to when the stores are closed down again and we don't know when to open so how do you sort of deal with those situations. Can I answer that? Sure go ahead. So I mean my point is that I mean this is not a living place in the sense that people come and go I mean they spend two hours three hours and then they go back to their respective places. So holding such a marketplace accountable for something I think is right very very unreasonable and I am very confident in the government authorities that they will understand this point of view that the customer came I mean despite all and we can track that with the camera we can track that with the temperature. And all that whatever was required to be done was done properly. If there is no willful default then I think the authorities will be very very reasonable I mean and if there is a lapse and it's a willful lapse I mean in today's environment I doubt any mall owner or any restaurant will do a willful default I mean that is out of question. No I mean we run I mean this place and every employee every colleague every retailer is very very responsible and this has been drilled down to the lowest level of the staff like parking attendant to the housekeeping to the security that I mean there is no lapse and not even one person chance of any willful default. So if it's not willful default I think we can live with it. Shashi Rajneesh any separate views on the question. Sorry. I think you just said it rightly that we have the ability to audit and monitor our processes very very by duty. And, you know, these are best of the teams at least. Shashi. See, if I've understood the question properly of what the gentleman said is about, you know, if the store gets closed for whatever reason, how are we ensuring that the safety aspect has been taken care. I think see even in a regular scenario, if a store is getting closed it normally, you know, there is a process where, you know, right from the point of handing over taking over there's a complete process being put in. Now, given this COVID scenario, I'm sure each and every mall along with the retailer as an even outgoing retailer for the matter. They will come out with a certain taking the owners of, you know, whatever the assets condition they put in terms of ensuring the safety elements of the materials which they're taking it or which they're leaving it and then come up with the sanitization part. So I think that according to me is the is the is the most fundamental aspect and each and every one along with the set of retailers, it incoming retailer outgoing retailer I think this is something which everyone will be able to easily commit and something which they can have yet. So I don't see that as a major challenge in my opinion. Sure. We'll take one last question from Mahin. Mahin, please unmute. Mahin, you need to unmute. Since we're not able to have this question. Okay, so I think we can now conclude the session. I would want one final sort of tip from you as to one short term and one long term change that you see happening in your business because of this pandemic. And where do you see overall and very quickly we'll do it like from a mall's perspective as well as from a restaurant's perspective that one short term change that you bring in your business and one long term change that you think will happen both in the malls and the restaurants because of that. Let's start with Saurabh. Ritu, I think after COVID, every person will have a different mindset. People have become very humble. People have learned that, you know, one needs to respect the planet, one needs to respect the environment. People will change in a very big way to vegetarianism also if I, if I'm not wrong. And I personally feel restaurant which will be able to, you know, convince and assure and, you know, win the customer on all the post COVID practices, whether it's hygiene, whether it's menus, whether it's distinct, they'll be able to, you know, kind of survive that. And this will become a normal practice. Like earlier days hygiene was not that, not up to that level. It has to really, really be taken into consideration. The restaurants have to be very transparent. Every each and every area has to be, you know, visible, and we have to, you know, kind of play with that. Long term. Long term also same thing. I mean, the business is bound back in a very big way. And the, you know, going forward, if one is able to maintain the hygiene standards, if one is able to take forward everything, it'll, you know, the normal practice will become very, very, you know, hygienic. That's about it. Sharad? Yes. I mean, I think sort of is covered for the points, but I think I strongly believe is hygiene is a good high for decent successful life and is advised for everybody. I hope and I believe that any arrangements which are short term are important. And we go back to normalcy as soon as the vaccine comes out. The memories of humans, I mean, they tend to forget things easily and very fast as soon as things, as soon as the vaccine comes out, then I'll come back. So long term thing would be whatever we were doing. But of course, hygiene, hygiene factors to the given situations and given places of the malls or the restaurant or a place or home, everywhere else, even in our car. So that's a positive point to add on into this bad time. So short term changes will be only getting them enabled and one more thing, we are going to test our relationship. That's nice. And I want to add one more thing. I forgot that technology will play a very big role in long term. People will completely depend on technology in the biggest possible manner. Whether it's contactless, whether it's supporting the contactless dining. As I mentioned before, menus, QR codes, virtual tours, you know, anything what technology can help to keep the hygiene levels and the trust level of the customer intact. Sure, Varun. Yeah, so short term, of course, I see great discounts coming our way in terms of rentals, our rental costs going down. So that's the short term change that we see. Long term, I think a little bit of sanity in our industry will kind of come in. I think there was a lot of expansion without cause. I think that was happening. We were almost at that point where we were ready to expand, you know, we signed three projects together. And I think that that that, you know, the parts that we've taken, you know, project a year, you know, kind of the Joel that project kind of take our own destiny into our own hands. I think that will be the way going forward. A lot of restaurant owners kind of took a lot of money going forward. I think I think that might or might not be the correct way. I also hear a lot of stories from people who've taken money from investors that the investors are coming back to them at 20% interest and saying we'll give you a bridge loan at 20% interest to kind of, you know, take some more money to stay afloat. And that becomes a very, very difficult thing. At least when you're in your, you know, your own kind of owner, you know that you have to run a profitable business, you know you have to run your house with it. So I think that there will be a little more sanity in terms of expansion. I think that people will be a little smarter out of this. You know, people have said that if you can survive this year, you can survive anything. So I think it'll make everybody a lot stronger out of out of this, this kind of situation. And let's hope for everybody that that kind of this bounces back in. Let's keep in mind that restaurants are not just about the owners or the malls. They're about the millions of people that the malls and the restaurants and the retail stores employed. I think for more than anybody, I think consumers is one part. I think the employment that it'll impact if, if, if, you know, organized retail does not come back will be very, very difficult. So I do think that organized retail is going to be there for the long run. I live in Gurgaon. There is a, there are a couple of markets which opened up in Gurgaon. I happen to go near or drive by one of those markets the other day and there was absolutely no social distancing. There was no checking. There was nothing that was happening in those independent markets. So I definitely think that organized retail, you know, 2611 was a very, very bad day for, for hotels, for example, but hotels bounced back quite beautifully. And, you know, something like security checks became a norm. I think anybody who goes to any mall or any hotel has now has to have their car inspected, which has become normal. Right. So, so I think the way we look at safety hygiene, you know, with organized retail is going to change. And I think it, it, it would have changed five years from now. It's just going to change immediately. Let's, let's, let's put it that way. Sure. Rajneesh, would you want to give a mall's perspective from a short term and long term? I think in short term, we will see that certain categories will have a search in buying, which is the customers experiences in last two months that they have gone through, whether it is to try their cooking skills or whether it is to do with health and fitness and many others. You know, so there are categories, which, which consumer has really seen by from a very close quarter in last two months for work from home. And these things will see a surge in sales in short term and discretionary spend will be pushed a little away, maybe a month, two months time. Till such time there are nice discounts coming on in merchandise and people will go out and buy. I think in long run, you know, as a country, we lack the sense of personal space. You know, and most of us have been complaining about, you know, whether you go to airport or railway stations or any of the public space, you know, there is no sense of personal space. And I believe as a consumer behavior that sense of personal space will come in and people will demand that. And from the design perspective of our stores and from our mall, we need to be a little more sensitive for future real estate projects that we have more emphasis given on this personal space for consumers. Shashi. In my opinion, the short run. I think it is going to be of intense collaboration. That's what is going to be the focus of the mall as well as for the retailers collaborations largely to front one on the safety aspects, because it can't happen on one one business it has to come together. So the people have to come together because the customer comes to the mall, primarily to shop. So to that extent, even if the customer is in the store or in the mall, it has a collaboration elevation that is from the safety aspect. The second collaboration in my opinion is also in the communication towards building the confidence in the consumer mind. That also depends upon how both these partners with the mall as well as the retailers are coming together. I think for another six to nine months is very, very crucial. And all of what we have in Bangalore here, it has easily about 200 main line retailers. So I don't think so today. I have a luxury to not even on a monthly basis, if not on a daily basis. Meetup and I am getting the detail granular detail of how this, you know, aspect of safety is is being built and achieved. And, and, and second thing is in terms of communicating that to the consumer, be when the consumer is in the in the mall or even if they are not in the mall. So how that that element of confidence can be built even so to that extent of communication where if even if the mall is going for a sale. I don't think so any ball can go in and sort of given an ad. And then, but it has to be done in a different manner. So to that extent that that element of communication and the safety aspect of, you know, ensuring it there is intense collaboration with both the partners has to do that as a short run. In long run, I tend to go by what Rajini just mentioned, because customers today, everyone are realizing that the sense of, you know, the personal space. And to that extent, any infrastructure and also not exception to that is public infrastructure has to work towards that and may not be an immediate changes, but I'm sure even in a current malls, there are enough and enough room for the malls to come up and make that changes make that smaller changes or the embellishment which should be tend to give that kind of a personal space. So that, and that in turn is going to give a, you know, positive, above to the confidence, both this intense collaboration and the long term aspect of looking at it is going to give a positive above to the overall turnaround of the business. Sure. So, quickly, I mean, I feel that in the short term, there has to be a huge collaboration required transparency required. And that's what I mean, until date, we do not have a legal dispute with any of any one of the retailers from last 12 years we have been working. So these agreements are there in place for sure. But I mean, if the spirit is missing, then the agreements are no good. So I mean, we will love to work with with the partnership spirit and both parties should sit together, decide a way forward chart the way forward and it has to be a flexible plan because some of them and not FNB but some of the retailers have also written mails which are not very, very unreasonable that no 2025 the current market. That's not the, I mean, that's not possible. I mean, so it has to be in the spirit of partnership agile, flexible, we have to work together see every fortnightly how things are moving. And I am very positive that we'll pass through this situation. And regarding long term, I'm a firm believer in brick and mortar. And I believe that they are going to stay forever. And it's not a shopping place. It's not a eating place. It's a place of going out, you know, and everyone wants to go out and we all know this feeling now by the lockdown. So I'm also going to stay there and I'm very positive. I mean, there are some pessimists according to pessimists. No, I have made a list of pessimistic point of view from their point of view. We should not live tomorrow. I mean, we should die. And we have a list of optimist also. I mean, they are buying Q managers that Jesse Malkhwile. So I mean, we have to find a balanced viewpoint to pessimistic is also bad to optimist is also dangerous. So realistic approach is required. And I trust my our 10 our partners occupiers will find a way out for sure. Sure. So thank you very much. I think some good points shared. I think you know what I can tell you is that as an editor, I feel much more assured that what from what you said it's safer to come to a ball. I think the minute you're able to put out your opinion like this in the same manner to the customers who want to come inside the malls. I think the whole ideology would be very different. You'll see a lot of walk-ins happening. And so it's really all about the kind of processes that we will have in our in our, you know, workplaces, whether they are restaurants or malls would really define our profitability and going forward the purpose of our business. And, you know, I think as Rajini rightly said that India is a very populated country. So our social distances are anyway very less. But I mean, it's, it's the world's demand. It's the demand of the nature that we need to put distance amongst ourselves. It's something if we don't learn, we'll be sick. So that is something we have to learn regardless of whatever else we do. So thank you very much to all the people to all our panelists who came here today and shared some good thoughts and positive, I would say, energy for businesses to open. And I also love the fact that restaurant years, you know, despite all the laybacks that they are having and, you know, all kind of ruckus that they are facing every day, whether it's to their staff or whether it's to their food or everything else, they still have such positive optimism about the business. And I think that's what is required and we'll come back out of it. So thank you very much for joining us again. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you guys. Thank you very much. Yeah, I think so. All right. Thank you all the panelists for joining us today. It has been a fantastic session and hopefully we'll see all the attendees and panelists in the new future. Not in the confines of our houses, but virtually, but practically, you know, we also have a short survey link after this. I request all the attendees to please fill it for us to some to get some relevant feedback on this webinar. Thank you everyone for joining us today. Thank you and cheers. Have a good weekend.