-U.Bharath| (cbedit@imaws.org)
Namakkal District Hotel Owners Association (NDHOA) has come a long way since the district was formed after bifurcating the Salem district a good 28 years back in 1996. Now, the association boasts over 500 members spread over the district including towns such as Tiruchengode, Rasipuram and Pallipalayam.
A thriving industrial city, Namakkal has an impressive presence in transport ( body building) and poultry industries and the workforce in the workshops boosts the restaurant business. In a chat with Kitchen Herald, Suresh Kumar, secretary of NDHOA pointed to a lack of government support, and restrictions placed by law enforcement authorities including state police to shut shops at night hours, as the bane of the restaurant business in the district.
Excerpts from the chat with C. Suresh Kumar:
Kitchen Herald: What are the day-to-day challenges you face in running the restaurant business in the district?
Suresh Kumar: Namakkal is an industrial town, with a thriving transport bodybuilding and poultry industries and the workshops are functioning round the clock. However, due to local police pressure, we are forced to shut shop at 11 pm, losing customers who work in various business units.
While the former DGP Sylendra Babu during his tenure had accorded permission to restaurants to function late into the night, the practice is discontinued now, citing law and order problems by the local police. On the other hand, the stranglehold of licensing authorities such as the excise department, TN Pollution Control Board and FSSAI are also highly restrictive and we are forced to abide by various strictures enforced by these authorities.
Kitchen Herald: what is the new trend have you witnessed in the restaurant business?
Suresh Kumar: The restaurant business has gone in for great expansion in the last decade and with that the customer base has increased phenomenally as also their varied needs.
In earlier times, restaurants used to attract diners if they gave good quality food, but this is not the case any longer. Dining out has captured the imagination of the general population and weekends are reserved for that. Consumers now demand attractive ambience and indoor decoration in restaurants and attractive menu cards with a host of varieties. Running the business has become more complex than in the past years, with modern customers.
Also, new players entering the business are highly inexperienced, and they hardly learn the intricacies of running the business. Resultantly, a good 50% of new entrants sell their business sooner than later unable to meet the competition in the marketplace.
Kitchen Herald: Do you get enough Government support for the restaurant business?
Suresh Kumar: Government support is very much lacking in the restaurant business, to run it on a profitable basis. For example, our long-held demand to change electricity consumption charges from the category of commercial user ( Rs. 9.50 per unit) to Micro and Small industries tariff ( Rs.6.00 per unit) has not been fulfilled yet, despite representations to the government through our state association.
Kitchen Herald: What difficulties do you face while maintaining the workforce?
Suresh Kumar: Our business is a labour-intensive one, and we have to work all the 365 days in a year. Labour scarcity due to rising competition and mushrooming outlets is yet another problem. We don’t get qualified kitchen staff such as dosa masters, even though we hire 50% of our staff from catering institutes and pay them well. A unique problem faced by hotel workers is the difficulty in getting life partners. Families overlook hotel workers as potential grooms, as they have no free time or weekends.
It is a fact that families prefer a groom with lesser pay than a hotel employee with good monthly pay and perks.
Kitchen Herald: Kitchen waste disposal is a huge problem to be confronted by hotel owners. How do you do it successfully?
Suresh Kumar: As per FSSAI dictates, hotel waste should be disposed of twice a day. No bins are allowed to deposit the waste. Due to the high volume of waste generated from restaurants, the local bodies including the Namakkal Municipal Corporation find it hard to safely dispose of the solid waste.
The solid waste disposal mechanism should be strengthened to safely dispose of wastes produced by hotels every day. Indeed, many local bodies are dithering with the problem, as they don’t have technologies to convert waste into money, such as vermicomposting, and installing CNG plants.
Some of the times, we have to use our resources to dispose of the hotel waste.
Recently, Tiruchengode Municipality stopped disposing of the hotel waste altogether, and we were forced to spend money from our resources to dispose of the solid waste every day in that famous town.
Kitchen Herald: How are the franchises of big-ticket players in the business doing in your district?
Suresh Kumar: Franchises of restaurant chains such as A2B, and Thalappakatti are doing better business these days, as they have a streamlined system and a trained staff. The Non-Vegetarians segment has flourished in recent times, and they not surprisingly do better business than the vegetarian segment.
Kitchen Herald: How do you see the role of social media and YouTube vloggers who play a pivotal role in marketing your products and services?
Suresh Kumar: Food bloggers and vloggers are welcoming change in populating food outlets and menu items across the state. But for the negative propaganda by some mischief-mongers, we are happy with the social media reach of our essential services.
Recently an agitation was staged by a section of people against a Thalappakatti franchise outlet in the town blaming them for the poor quality of the served food. Petitions were also sent to the Namakkal District collector and the Food safety officer. But in the end, everything turned out to be a motivated one.
Kitchen Herald: How has tourism in the district helped to boost your businesses?
Suresh Kumar: We have Kolli hills, an Eastern Ghat hill retreat, Ardha Naarishwarar temple in Tiruchengode and the famous Anjaneyar temple in Namakkal, which are visited by tourists and pilgrims from around the state, around the year.
We are situated in the Kongunadu belt and temples of family deities are an attraction for NRIs living in countries including Malaysia, Singapore and the West. The all year round tourist arrivals definitely increase the footfalls for our businesses in our district.
