 One thing if I would like to give to the industry or I would like to empower the industry what would it be and My only thought was that it would has to be building leadership and leadership has to be multidimensional Today India has roughly 1.8 million restaurants for 1.3 billion people So I don't really think we are that short of restaurants as we would like to believe but whatever What is more concerning I believe is for the industry to understand is that we are Rather less when it comes to an organized being an organized industry unlike the rest of the world Be it China be it the US be it other markets like Europe where the organized industries share is very large ours Is fairly less which is 15% But you know when we I was researching About the organized industry I also understood that they were just about 50 Companies in all that had more than hundred restaurants. In fact those 50 were also probably closing and opening more restaurants all the time Less than one-tenth of the entire restaurants are branded in India So which means you know, it's nobody's bet where you're gonna be eating tonight Numbers talk differently to different people when I was looking at these numbers which were put together by NRAI report You know, it gave me a very different sort of understanding of where this industry needs to be now Qsr sector is about 21% of The entire industry it stands at about almost close to 50,000 crores But in the last few years what we've seen increasing in bulging our sectors like casual dining and cafes Fine-dine probably has reduced even Qsr would have been reduced to a bit But I realized that you know more hybrid format of restaurants is what has really changed this Entire numbers in this list that you see in front over here So what when I say hybrid formats, you know, they're their formats of restaurants which have come between I would say Family restaurants and fine-dine restaurants which you today call casual dining restaurants And then there's another new format which is going to evolve which is another sort of hybrid restaurants Which is somewhere going to be between casual dining and quick service restaurants, which is your fast casual restaurants So the bulge that you see in the middle, which is casual dining cafes It's only going to sort of either increase or it is going to sort of squeeze each other So casual dining might actually come down and fast casual might go up and cafes would probably You know decrease some to give or make way for fast casuals but what what is really sort of something that you need to take away from this table is that you know Why do people go to these restaurants? I realized that for a quick service restaurant people basically go there and keep going there because of the familiarity of the restaurant That's the reason why customers and repeat customers would keep going to quick service industry Because you know, they're familiar. They know the food. They know the ambience They know what to expect on the contrary people go to a casual dining or even to a fast casual for the thrill of it For the frills that might actually be there in the restaurant They go more for an adventure than really for eating. So the familiarity might not be there Which means the industry has to do all the more work in terms of building its customer and building its repeat customer loyalty But you know I think If we have to take really a cue from this sheet What we really need to understand is that there is no leadership per se that exists today in the casual dining or the newly emerging Formats QSR today if you're opening today if you're a young restaurant here who's starting a QSR Believe you me, you know, they're there there's enough number of suppliers in this industry. There are enough number There's enough leadership. There is enough people who can guide you mentor you and you'll you'll be up and about in no time That's because this industry has able to establish itself not just in India But globally and there is enough leadership that exists enough mentorship enough resources enough industry suppliers Which will help you grow very fast But when it comes to casual dining and cafes and fast casuals There is not enough work that has been done for the industry to prosper and really be growing in the Direction that we need to see it growing Which is a concern for me, you know, because that till there is enough Knowledge till there is enough expertise that exists in the industry for the industry to grow whether it is casual dining or fast Casual or any other format it will not happen and and you know, that is why we'll probably see more failures We'll probably see restaurants opening restaurants closing that that needs some correction and that needs some leadership to happen in this Industry at some stage if these formats really have to grow and prosper and more importantly grow large This is what I feel is not so visible in the industry, you know I I run the entrepreneur magazine So I follow the funding scene the largely the you know capital movements very closely And I realize that early funding practically doesn't exist in this industry angel funding. There is no angel fund Which I can say would cater to I know the Indian angel network guys very closely And they've only made probably just one in big investment in the food service sector Well, they made about five in the blockchain sector, which is like a non-existent sector across the world right now So early funding doesn't exist but also more importantly VC PE funding doesn't exist to a big level It's in fact been drastically falling down in the last few years Restaurant valuations have not been that great as we would like to see them There's more bridge funding and there's more haircuts being taken in the industry Then I would say a big investment moving behind a high growth firm in the sector and that is not something That is usually seen or that is something that is You know the or should be part or should be as a picture that should be seen in a Sector which is otherwise very growth-oriented. I don't see unicorns coming out of restaurant business like I see in other sectors So, you know, so really I mean if you're entrepreneurial and you want to grow and you want to bigger build business in Restaurants to become a unicorn Yeah, it's not gonna happen or it's not gonna come easy. There's not so much fall in attrition You know attrition I've always felt is a function of the industry and where the industry is headed Why I feel attrition is more in this industry is because there is no sort of clear direction as to where the industry is growing a Person who joins the industry doesn't know what his career looks like five years ten years down the line If he's whether he's working in the restaurant or whether he's working in the organization So I think that is something that needs to be corrected But a clear direction building visibility for where your talent is going to be five years down the line in the industry Is very important to pinpoint Barring hotel chefs and probably chefs who are probably being more seen on television or You know, maybe Being celebrated in some other forms. I don't see chefs being empowered in India to that extent You know restaurants are all about chefs casual dining is really all about the chef who is going to service that Restaurant so they need to today be really acting like not just be known for their technical skills But really for their organizational skills on how they organize maybe one unit two unit three units that they are likely to manage in their career So, you know somewhere or the other I think they need to wear a CEO's cap in the restaurant and Be looking beyond just their technical functions of our culinary functions We need far more efficient supply chains locals have to be substituted with a more efficient more optimized supply chain Because you know you cannot address hygiene you cannot address Good food, you know day on day being able to service your customer with the right food that he's looking at from your store Till you have a good supply chain in place. I Barring a few large chains the fifties that I was talking about. I don't see a very big supply chain Being existing in the industry and most importantly I think there is no formal mentorship and incubation that one sees in this industry As it should happen in a growing industry. They're not enough mentors Who are really going to take your industry from level A to level B or level B to level C? Which exists which would be able to also help you in your funding drive which will be able to help you in your Organizational drive. I don't see that and there is very little incubation. In fact the first incubator. I came to know was Yellow time and we were doing the franchise in their show recently on TV So incidentally, you know when we were doing this consumer show, which was the first ever TV show being done in India we realized that About so the 50 person people who really applied for the show were actually restaurant owners and There was only one company which came up which said that we're going to be tomorrow's incubator for restaurants So honestly all this doesn't exist and till it does not exist and come forward and be seen and Visibly be seen. This industry is not going to go anywhere big Till it organizes itself to the last mile every new restaurant here First of all when they open a restaurant or the think of expanding restaurants need to put it all in place or put it All in order in order to grow