Bhushan Oberoi, the restaurant maven, with his nouveau ideas created a chain of Casa Piccola outlets way back in 1979. Casa Del Sol is his latest addition.

Any casual visitor to Bangalore will surely notice the many restaurants in town. Is it the eating out nature or the overflowing dispensable income of the cosmopolitan culture, is another debate altogether. But it is intriguing for any marketing person to wonder how an eatery can stand out in this crowd. It seems the Casa Piccola chain of restaurants have mastered that art. Bhushan Oberoi though has mastered that art of charming his customers, is very humble in claming that he’s still a student!

When the first of the Casa Piccola restaurants was started decades ago, the IT revolution had not yet touched Bangalore. In those days, a speciality cuisine restaurant was quite a novelty and the delectable European dishes served, mesmerised the food connoisseurs in town. So the word spread about their food and Oberoi had to start more ventures in other parts of the city. But moving away from the romantic 80’s when serving food was a passion, into the 21st century, where food has become a major industry. Is Casa Piccola, from being the pioneer in the field, now getting lost in the multitude of eateries?

Staying ahead: Oberoi is unperturbed by the new wave. He states, “It’s been 25 years now and I agree that challenges are becoming bigger as competition grows. We are making an effort to stay in the customer’s minds and all these years’ people have found us up to the mark. We are surely not the masters in the game, rather we are forever learning. We have to keep researching for better menu and also keep the prices under control. If we serve high quality food with impeccable service then we can be ahead of the competition.”

“Each one of our business is in a niche market, where the customer is quite discerning for top quality authentic food. There is a lot happening in the mainstream Indian vegetarian food, but we are not bothered about the competition. Inspite of so many new entrants we have retained our market share due to our long term focus on quality. Our USP has been serving high quality food, in an endearing ambience at affordable prices. The three pillars of excellence on which we built our business model is 33% food, 33% ambience and 33% pricing.”

Initial Struggle: Oberoi acquire his training in Austria in the city of Salzburg and later he worked for various MNC companies in countries like Egypt and Nepal. Soon hospitality got ingrained into him and he gained expertise in European food and in creating a Mediterranean ambience. When he opened the first Casa Piccola restaurant in 1979, it was quite tough to build the value from ground up. He started the first venture with an initial capital of Rs.1 lakh and had to convince the banks to give loan to a stranger. He says, “I didn’t ask for any help from friends and relatives. I could have started in Delhi since my family is well-to-do, but I have always been a fish swimming upstream!”

Time tested processes: While everyone in the service industry harps about managing quality of input and customer service, how can one ensure best rating in the industry and good food on the table? Oberoi clarifies, “First thing is, you should work with the best quality raw material, be it packed food or fresh vegetables. We have our own training method in preparing food and service. We don’t have any extra storage capacity for food, as I am sure that larger the storage, higher the spoilage. All our food supplies run out within 36 hours and we buy fresh material.”

“Second issue is the service quality. We tell our staff to convey the message of genuine concern and give the customer a feeling of spontaneity. Rather than a trained reply, we lay emphasis on human factor. Be forthright in accepting a mistake and see what can be done to solve the issue. Try to establish a rapport with the customer and also give emphasis on speed of service and quality”.

“We are a system oriented company and have our own software to take care of the production. To keep the cost down we have a tighter production and supply chain monitoring system. We also have a guest comment monitoring system, where every comment is read by me and replied if necessary. A customer once said, “Your music is awful, play something like Neil Diamond or Bee Gees and the person was flattered when we really did. The bottom-line is, be passionate about your work.”

Transfer the passion: While you are passionate about our work, how do you transfer the message across to your employees? “I do agree there would be some loss when you transmit your message, but fortunately I have an excellent set of employees. As the larger stakeholder in the business, I would have a higher passion, but if you train them in the right way and make them value the human factor, you can cultivate a healthy degree of passion. Though we are a small company, we make sure to take care of employee’s minimum benefits like on-time salary, PF, ESI and a separate accident insurance. We now have 150 employees and my respect for them has enhanced their sincere passion.”

Not aggressive not settled : Oberoi feels that there is no need to be aggressive. “We now have four restaurants in the major thoroughfares in town and three coffee shops inside corporate companies. We are also into retailing through our Raaga Gift outlets and serviced apartments. We are not an aggressive player eager to expand the business. Though we have had several requests for franchisees in other metros, I am still hesitating to get into it. In the service industry, it is quite easy to dilute the passion with which we have built this brand.”

This doesn’t mean he has settled down. “Settling down is quite a wrong concept for a businessman. That would mean you have stopped putting efforts and have quit learning. However we have expanded our team and since we have invested in people, it does allow me to delegate my work. I do travel extensively to learn new ideas. My Learning is not just in the hotel industry but I try to get a deeper essence of culture. Architecture is of great interest to both me and my wife. All our restaurants have been designed by us. Latin and Mediterranean style has greatly influenced us. We are also inclined to the vibrancy of our Indian culture, particularly of the rustic Rajas than. For instance the ambience of Casa Del Sol, our latest offering is very much in the Greek style.”

Related Items:

---

Be first to comment this article

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.