Iconic eateries of Mumbai in breakdown mode due to reduced footfalls

This photo haa been used for representational purpose only

Restaurant body, AHAR, pegs revenue losses to the tune of more than fifty per cent.

The current lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted all small and medium restaurants in the city. There are over 8000 eateries registered with the restaurateur's body AHAR and those bearing the maximum brunt are the ones who have to take care of their large workforce.

Furthermore, overheads and sustained skilled worker salaries add to the woes of the eatery owners in their fight for survival, said Geeta Hansaria.

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Among those impacted is also one of the Mumbai's most renowned quick service restaurants - Achija established in 1987 in Ghatkopar, Pant-Nagar famous for its scrumptious Pav-Bhaji & Fast-Food.

"We are a chain of vegetarian restaurants and have been serving quality fast-food since 1987. There are always ups and downs in business but never in the last three decades have we seen such staggering disruption. The turmoil in the Food & Beverage sector is so severe that, it will easily take over a year for things to crawl back to normal," explained Tapan Mange, Restaurateur-Promoter, Achija.

Other restaurant owners have concerns similar to those expressed by Mange. Due to real estate being expensive in Mumbai, small eating joints have always had modest space to accommodate their customers. "We used to try and squeeze six people in a table that could comfortably accommodate four, during peak hours due to space crunch. Currently, due to social-distancing norms that the government has laid out for everyone's safety during the pandemic, we are not able to do this. Due to the lockdown, the footfalls have reduced drastically; however, the overheads, salaries, and maintenance costs still have to be borne by us. This impact may force us to hike our selling price," said the owner of Hotel Manohar, another long-standing eatery in Dadar.

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AHAR, the unified body representing restaurateurs' quotes from a recent CRISIL report that the F&B industry in the country is worth 1.5 lakh crores and it will take another year for it to recover. Dine inns account for 75 per cent of the revenue while deliveries and takeaways account for the rest 25 per cent. The turnover of each restaurant has experienced an estimated revenue loss of 55 - 60 per cent in this period. Cities like Mumbai and Delhi, where the toll of the pandemic has been worse, in themselves account for half of the organized hotel industry, and the impact is seen there is maximum.

"Ours is a perishable goods industry. Our migrant manpower has left us; we still have overheads and rentals to tackle in spite of business being down to almost a trickle. Even in the near future people would prefer to call in food at home, as in most of our small restaurants due to crunched spaces, strict social distancing is difficult to follow and hence we have to rely only on take-outs & parcels. However, even today we are bound to pay our overheads at the commercial rate," said Niranjan Shetty, Member, AHAR. After the lockdown, the F&B Industry hopes the Maharashtra State Government will consider problems of the sector afresh.

"Such a terrible drop in business has deep-rooted repercussions & has disrupted the entire supply chain of the State - be it dairy, veggies, kirana or gas supply. Even the farmers have been severely affected, causing a serious economic worry. As the other States are working on creating employment opportunities for the labour that has returned to their hometowns, we will have to additionally brace ourselves for expensive labour in Mumbai," said Tapan.

"Maharashtra's Cabinet Minister for Tourism and Environment, Aditya Thackeray has always advocated restaurants being open around the clock and introducing legal & standardized food trucks with allotted legal spaces; a few things that are much awaited. We may need some Government aided relief to a few but not all sectors as it's Mumbai. This may be the correct time to experiment, implement, overhaul & rejuvenate the battered sectors with a facelift, better functionality, better capabilities & help bring our beloved city Mumbai back to it's prime & charm," concluded Tapan Mange, Entrepreneur/Restauranteur.

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