How about getting ideas while serving grills to customers in a hotel in Indore? Looks odd! But that is the story of one of your favorite food destination ‘Barbeque Nation’.
No doubt this restaurant chain is a hit in the market due to its live grill display that attracts the customers taste buds. Founded back in 2006 they now have 81 outlets nationwide and 34 were just added in the last two years. They have just filed their IPO and looks for raising a fund of almost 700 crore INR in the market.
From Where It Started
Just another day for a restaurant manager serving grills in a hotel by the poolside. It was a cold November night at Sayaji Hotel where Prosenjit Choudhury noticed that customers were not satisfied with the grills reaching them cold. He then recollected of something that he had witnessed on television earlier. Keeping in mind the lifestyle of nomads and camp style cooking he brought to the table a grilling machine and the idea was an instant hit. The people loved it.
After that, there was no looking back. Sajid Dhanani, then MD of Sayaji Hotels gave him a thumbs up to open his own food chain. Choudhury went on to open the first one at Mumbai in 2006. “I wanted to see if the hoopla around the live-grill would wear off. But after six months, we had 50 percent return customers,” he told Forbes.
The One After That
The Barbeque Nation then started to grow in other cities. From Mumbai to Bangalore, Hyderabad and much more. In a short span of time almost 9 outlets were opened. But it got tough for Choudhary to maintain all these on his own so he had put trust on managers and staffs.
The selection of stuff is pretty weird and different. HR’s are kept to take an interview before they are recruited. three-hour psychometric test that all employees have to clear. “Almost 18,000 people have taken our psychometric test over the years, only 15 percent have passed,” says Choudhury.
The main concern is the customer satisfaction. If you ever have visited their outlet or plan to visit in future, you will notice that they actually don’t receive tips but instead long for customer feedbacks. The reason is their call center in Indore gathers customer feedback every day and feeds it into something it calls the Guest Satisfaction Index. If the points match their criteria then the store manager and staffs are awarded bonus points. Such an awesome idea!
#WhatsNew at Amritsar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mohali, New Delhi, Noida, & Udaipur. pic.twitter.com/G08EnkvqZG
— Barbeque Nation (@BarbequeNation) August 3, 2017
The Marketing
Barbeque Nation knows the target audience they have to hit. The high society crowd is generally targeted. Thus the menu and ambiance are kept so maintaining a standard.
Their annual revenues were nearly Rs. 400 crore in 2016 and they made a profit instantly with a profit after-tax of Rs. 12.8 crore.
And now by filing for an IPO, they will now be listed among top Indian restaurants for Indian stock indexes. A company just found a few years back and getting such a success is really praiseworthy.
The IPO comprises of a fresh issue of up to Rs 200 crore and an offer for sale of up to 61.8 lakh shares by the company’s existing shareholders including Aajv Investment Trust, Tamara Private Limited, Azhar Dhanani, Kayum Dhanani, Sanya Dhanani and Sadiya Dhanani .
