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Greenr Café becomes India’s first national plant based chain of restaurants
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Tuesday, 03 August, 2021, 15 : 00 PM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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Greenr Cafe, India’s first authentic California-inspired plant-based restaurant and café, operating three locations in Delhi NCR, has opened its first location in a prime area of Bandra, Mumbai.
The café opened its doors to the public earlier in July, much to the anticipation of an increasing market of conscious and healthy eaters looking to expand their options in plant based food – the most significant trend in the restaurant industry this past decade.
A first-mover in the plant based foods industry in India, it has been on the forefront of leading the transformation of the dine-out culture in urban India. In fact, the ongoing pandemic has helped catalyse this demand even more as people seek healthier options that are better for them – a fact corroborated by the Good Food Institute in its recent SPINS report.
The Good Food Institute also noted in the report that a total of 57% of US households purchased plant-based food in 2020, up from 53% in 2019. While US is primarily a non-vegetarian country, this trend in America has significant repercussions on the future growth of the plant based industry in India – the largest vegetarian country in the world by a significant margin.
Globally too, the prospects of the industry seem to be very promising, with investment firm UBS projecting growth of plant based protein and meat alternatives to increase from $4.6 billion in 2018 to $85 billion in 2030.
The founders recognised this trend early last decade but still waited until 2015 to launch the first prototype of the product tailored for the Indian market. Mohit Yadav, co-founder and CEO, said, “While the first few years were spent adapting to the local demand, we started our expansion in late 2018 and had opened three locations in Delhi NCR by 2019. Mumbai had always been part of our expansion plans and despite the pandemic, we have managed to successfully open our first location here in Bandra.”
The café has always been known to change the perception of healthy eating. Nitin Dixit, co-founder and advisor, said, “We have always believed in the simple philosophy of eating plant-based food that is unprocessed. We just push ourselves every day to make this as delicious as possible so that eating healthy is not a compromise but a delight.”
“While our food is certainly the core offering, what adds to the magic of Greenr Café is that it has galvanised the community and allowed us to become a platform for alternative and sustainable living. We also spend a lot of time on choosing our locations – making pronounced efforts to conserve local architecture and introduce leading design interventions,” added Yadav.
Operating a plant based restaurant while adhering to values of sustainability is not without its challenges. The café has painstakingly built an alternate supply chain with small and regional producers. This is also a key part of their growth strategy.
Vaibhav Nagori, founding partner and COO, said, “We have national suppliers that are reviving and transforming agriculture and small-scale food processing facilities. We are proud to empower women and social entrepreneurs through our sourcing practices. Our sourcing and partner network will also help us tremendously as we expand to other locations including Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Goa.”
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