NEW DELHI: Restaurants and fast-food chains on Friday wrote to mall owners and landlords, urging them to pivot to a pure revenue-share model in light of the surge in Omicron cases. This is the second time in two years that businesses operating on rent at high streets and malls have turned to landlords for waivers. Most restaurateurs said business is currently 40% of what it was in November, when the third wave-induced restrictions were yet to kick in.
“The golden weeks have been crucified due to the new wave. December and January form the backbone of a restaurant’s profitability,” said Sagar Daryani, CEO & co-founder at Wow! Momo.
A typical restaurant earns around 20% of its annual revenue in December and half of that in the last week of the year due to Christmas, new year celebrations and a general feeling of festivity among consumers, showed data from the restaurant industry. And while the delivery business has supported food businesses during the pandemic, it is a low-margin and high-commission business and the dine-in category has been severely impacted, said restaurateurs.
“After being battered through two waves, the sector was on the brink of recovery. What’s hurting us the most are the knee-jerk curbs and curfews,” said Rahul Singh, founder of Beer Cafe.
The industry, with an annual turnover of Rs 4.25 lakh crore, however, is hopeful of a quick recovery this time compared to the previous two waves that crippled overall Indian hospitality sector leading to shut downs and job losses. “The good thing about India is the high rate of vaccination,” said Anurag Katriyar, founder and director of Indigo Hospitality. “If we take the case of South Africa, it took them around 10 weeks. We can expect to get back on track by the last week of February.”
“The golden weeks have been crucified due to the new wave. December and January form the backbone of a restaurant’s profitability,” said Sagar Daryani, CEO & co-founder at Wow! Momo.
A typical restaurant earns around 20% of its annual revenue in December and half of that in the last week of the year due to Christmas, new year celebrations and a general feeling of festivity among consumers, showed data from the restaurant industry. And while the delivery business has supported food businesses during the pandemic, it is a low-margin and high-commission business and the dine-in category has been severely impacted, said restaurateurs.
“After being battered through two waves, the sector was on the brink of recovery. What’s hurting us the most are the knee-jerk curbs and curfews,” said Rahul Singh, founder of Beer Cafe.
The industry, with an annual turnover of Rs 4.25 lakh crore, however, is hopeful of a quick recovery this time compared to the previous two waves that crippled overall Indian hospitality sector leading to shut downs and job losses. “The good thing about India is the high rate of vaccination,” said Anurag Katriyar, founder and director of Indigo Hospitality. “If we take the case of South Africa, it took them around 10 weeks. We can expect to get back on track by the last week of February.”
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