A smart online aid for restaurateurs

THE START-UP WORLD

Being a restaurateur, Maninder Kalsi had felt the heat in restaurant supply procurements. Issues like long waiting time, unorganised bills, missing invoice, outdated deals and last moment order cancellations have been the most common headache triggers for restaurant owners when it comes to supply procurements. Spotting the gap, Maninder sprung on his toes to start developing an online solution that would serve as a one-stop platform for businesses to purchase restaurant supplies at best prices. That was the birth of ChfMart.

Founded in 2020 by Maninder Kalsi and Kavita Verma, ChfMart has been bringing whiffs of respite to the restaurateurs in the region by providing them a hassle-free option to just place the orders and wait for the supplies to be delivered at the doorstep. ChfMart has partnered with local farmers, vendors as well as major brands catering to restaurant supplies to make the best items available to the restaurants at affordable prices, with assurance of timely delivery and an uncomplicated payment process.

ChfMart automatically creates different orders for different vendors instantly with real time updates on the dashboard. Restaurants can review the orders and make the pending payments with ease. The App has also introduced a Savings Calculator, which the restaurants can use to calculate the amount saved on an average.

Despite being hardly 2-year old, ChfMart has gained impressive traction and has clocked a revenue of over Rs.1.4 Cr this financial year (March-February'21). To date, the Startup has served 282 local restaurants in Guwahati and 52 from other states of North East India, including national chains like PVR, Hard Rock Café, Barbeque Nation, INOX, MBA Chai Wala, Chai Sutta Bar and Fat Tiger, among others.

Kavita Verma, one of the two co-founders, states, "Our goal is to digitize excessively paper-driven processes, so that stakeholders in foodservice can spend less time on operations, and more time doing what they love - creating amazing food."

Delving on the nitty gritties of the platform, she says, "ChfMart is essentially an online mobile and web application that allows businesses to order wholesale restaurant supplies from a network of dedicated regional manufacturers and wholesalers. Individual businesses join our community compromising of hundreds of local buyers and our collective buying power helps them save across all the items they need. Basically they save time by ordering everything their business needs in one place from their phones or laptops. They add all the products they require from different vendors with best prices and order in a single click. ChfMart automatically creates different orders for different vendors instantly with all the real time updates right in the user's dashboard/app. They can review or pay past orders and invoices anytime, anywhere. There are no hidden fees or time restrictions and our customer service team is always available 24/7."

So how is this procurement chain different from other procurement chains in the B2B segment?

Currently there is no one stop dedicated platform for the procurements in HoReCa (Hotel, Restaurant and Catering) industry within North East India. Our number one competitor is Hyperpure who has only 4% of the market share or less operating in about 5 metro cities. When we expand to other major cities, we are confident that users will prefer ChfMart.

Here are our competitive advantages (enlisted in the right side of the table):

• Traditional store distribution system  Digitalized multi-vendor F&B ordering platformby manufacturing companies

• Multiple vendors for different products  One stop solution for all F&B products

• Middleman, agents and commission increase the end price of the product  Best price guarantee, as the margins are set directly

• Headache to keep track and make payment to multiple vendors  Order, approve deliveries, pay, repeat: We make the messy reality of payments easy

• Misplaced invoices, no reports to evaluate

product loss and saving  Evaluate your savings and expenditure withdigitalized invoices and detailed reports

• Late night calls and chaos for orders  One tool for all orders. No more phone calls, emailorders, or stacks of paperwork

• Less time focusing on business  Saves 5+ hours a week managing orders andinvoices, leaving more time to grow business

• Mistakes in placing order results in wastage  More accurate orders, pricing, and invoicing meansfewer mistakes, fewer shortages, and less wastage

• Untimely delivery and additional delivery costand burden  Free delivery at your preferred delivery time slotwith no minimum order value

Elaborating on the background of her co-founder and their journey of collaboration, Kavita says, "Maninder Kalsi, was the owner (for four years) of one of the most promising dine-in places in Guwahati (Three Guys). In fact, he was the one to launch the first food delivery app in the city. The difficulties he faced in terms of procurements made him realise that this is a huge seemingly insurmountable problem of the restaurant and catering sector. Armed with an MSc IT degree, he has considerable knowledge of the information technology sector and this has helped to shape our company technology wise. I on my part have worked with multinational companies in the field of HR, which has helped me gain insights and understanding in terms of team building and motivation. Sales is also my forte. Our complementing skill sets and experience are helping to build ChfMart.

Talking about their revenue generation model, Kavita says, " The Indian Food Services market (organised and unorganised) is estimated at INR 4,096 billion in 2019 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 10% over the next five years to reach INR 6,753 billion by 2024. There is plenty of room for us to grow. Last financial year we did a turnover of 1.53 crore capturing 18% of market share of Guwahati, and this financial year we are targeting a turnover of 3.08 crore. The majority of the revenue is generated from products commission."

Citing some revenue generation points, she says, "Firstly we have commission charged from vendors on sale of products (category wise the commission varies). It is a B2B HoReCaA marketplace, hence the order quantity of these business is always in bulk. Secondly, as a super stockiest and distributor we earn direct commissions from the products sold. Thirdly, we charge for PPC (pay per click) marketing packages which vendors can purchase for higher visibility and sales. In future we are planning to introduce a monthly membership programme for restaurants for better discounts and express delivery as another revenue model."

ChfMart is currently servicing more than 282 clients in Guwahati and 48 from other states of North East India (Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh) including national chains like PVR, INOX, BBQ Nation, Hardrock, MBA Chaiwallah, Fat Tiger, Meat & Eat and Repose. "Last month we have also started exporting to a restaurant in Bhutan through Samdrup Jankar," shares Kavita.

So what is the growth and expansion strategy and vision going forward?

"Our vision is to change the way people think about procurement in HoReCa industry and become the next unicorn. It is our firm belief that the more honest and transparent a brand is, the more successful it will be. We have plans to expand into other major metro cities of India starting with Kolkata, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi and Chennai," Kavita answers.

And what were some of the prime hurdles that they faced in setting up the business and how did they circumvent these?

"Our clients initially were apprehensive about our platform as they were used to the robust credit facility provided by their existing vendors. For solving the credit facility we are in negotiation with Zest Money, which we are trying to integrate with our platform. After this integration is done our clients can instantly avail loans online checking their CIBIL on our platform," sums Kavita.

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