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NRAI demands input tax credit, ease of doing business & industry status at summit
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Tuesday, 25 April, 2023, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), the leading association for the restaurant industry since 1982, inaugurated a one-day ‘Cloud Kitchen and Food Delivery Summit’ at Pune, recently.
An initiative of the NRAI Pune chapter, the 2nd edition of the powerpacked summit was presented by DotPe and had over 40 industry leaders sharing their insights and experiences on five-panel discussions ranging from Building Loyalty, Profitability, Fine Dine-In, Future, and Aggregators. The summit brought together industry leaders, restaurant players, and food aggregators operating in the cloud kitchen and food delivery space. It witnessed tremendous response with around 1,000 delegates across India attending the summit. Participants included industry players, distribution and ordering channels, and kitchen infrastructure providers actively investing in this field.
While delivering the inaugural address, Kabir Suri, president, NRAI and co-founder & director, Azure Hospitality, said, “With over 7,000 members and spearheading to tier 2 & 3 cities, NRAI endeavours to build an eco-system, align the members by keeping the fraternity together, provide knowledge and support. The association has been around for 40 years. The ‘cloud kitchen and food delivery summit’ was envisioned during the pandemic when the industry went through disruption and the first edition was successfully held in Mumbai last year. We would like to continuously urge the government to accept our demand of reinstating GST input tax credit, ease of doing business with simplified processes and lesser clearances as well as award us industry status recognition.”
Suri added, “The cloud kitchen business is still growing in spite of the fact that people now have started eating and dining out post-pandemic. 23 to 25% commission is still being paid by the cloud kitchen businesses to aggregators and efforts are being taken to bring down these commissions. The target is to bring down the commission between 15 to 17 %. The current AOV (average order value) needs to go up, that’s the only solution. A minimal-price unit product being sold will not generate profit. Hence the higher the AOV, the more money the aggregators will have. The issue is on the price parity where one cannot have the same price of products for every aggregator platform.”
Vikram Bakshi, past president & trustee, NRAI and chairman of Ascot Hotels & Resorts, said, “This is a very exciting time for food business and the growth of the food business has immense opportunities for all. An online food delivery service is not a trend, it is a lifestyle. It is like having a personal chef but in the most cost-effective way possible. The online food delivery business all over the world is expected to grow by $452 billion, by 2030. India alone is expected to grow at a CAGR of 20 to 30 per cent by 2030. The online food delivery business in India has come a long way. From Mumbai Dabbawallas earlier to Swiggy and Zomato today, with the help of technology are able to create a seamless market for online food delivery. Cloud kitchens or ghost kitchens are a great concept and have opened a gateway for the start-up ecosystem too. The critical areas of focus are quality, consistency, and customer satisfaction. It is about creating a seamless ordering experience and meeting the expectations.”
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