How will Sri Lanka's restaurant scene emerge post COVID-19?
Before the virus stuck, there were two pressing problems that restaurants were facing. The 1st challenge was finding and retaining good labour in a food service workforce that was stagnating. The 2nd challenge was very narrow profit margins where rising rental, food and labour costs kept exerting downward pressure on menu prices. Hence, most establishments operated on thin margins and cash flow.
Covid-19 came along and shut down every type of food service business. The first signs of recovery were when those in the fast and casual food business began using 3rd party delivery to get food across to consumers in lockdown. Pretty soon, higher-end and hotel restaurants which traditionally did little take-out or delivery, took the same route.
Along with ‘delivery’ came the ‘curb-side’ pickup option. It’s convenient, the food is hotter than when delivered with minimal - touch. Over time it will increase in popularity.
The number of total Foodservice units globally, will decline – Colombo included. That’s for certain. Many restaurants have already closed and will not open their doors again. Additionally, chains will close units that are no longer viable. The break in cycle caused by COVID-19 is going to be difficult to restart many engines.
COVID-19 has pushed many restaurant operators over the cliff. There will be many who will suffer without the traffic of tourism. Smaller and privately-held chains may decide to sell because the restaurant business has become too difficult and risky. Only those with the financial ability, flexibility and agility to shift habits will succeed.
Let me illustrate this point with two contrastingly different experiences I encountered recently.
Experience 1: Last Thursday, my wife and I tried to enter this upscale Thai restaurant in Colombo 3 at 11.30 am. As we stood at the entrance, the manager put his head out from a side-door and said “We open only at 12”. (No greeting, no offer of assistance). When told we wanted to look at the menu to order some takeaway food for the following Monday, he let us in. Having selected our choices from the menu, we were astonished when the manager who instructed us to call his assistant on Monday around noon to place the order. Talk about going from the sublime to the ridiculous. We had taken the trouble to drive to this restaurant, where the manager in an empty restaurant, too busy doing nothing, wants us to phone-in on another day- to place our ‘takeaway’ order?
Experience 2: The next day, we went to a reputed Chinese restaurant at the former Racecourse building to order ‘takeaway’ food for the same Monday. After entering the place, we asked to speak to the Manager who came by swiftly and invited us to sit down at a nearby table and took our order, where we selected some food items off the menu. He then confirmed that our ‘takeaway’ order will be ready for collection at the required time. He also provided us his mobile number should we need to contact him.
I ask you two questions now: Of the two managers, who would you hire? - The one who was hungry for business or the one who was content to draw a salary doing the least? And, which of the two restaurants is likely to flourish or perish?
Hospitality Sri Lanka
The above article is from our video series “19-Hospitality Related Questions on Covid-19", which can be viewed on our Youtube channel here Why not take a moment to share your experience with us, or if you have a question you'd like answered, get in touch through reachus@hospitalitysrilanka.com We hope to hear from you, and in the meantime, check out our social media feeds on Facebook and Instagram.
Shafeek Wahab - Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka
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