Vikram Mohan, Chairman and Managing Director of Pricol Group, is scaling his restaurant business using a scientific operating system. His team documented 2,600 recipes at a Coimbatore kitchen to ensure consistent flavours. Now, the ₹110-crore venture is preparing to expand into two new cities by adopting a fresh franchise model.
How an auto industry leader cracked the code to mass-producing heritage culinary flavours
Why is it that an automotive factory can manufacture millions of components to exactly similar specifications, but a paniyaram made in Delhi does not taste the same as in Chennai?
For Vikram Mohan, Chairman and Managing Director of Coimbatore-based Pricol Group -- a diversified business entity and automotive technology provider -- this proved more than a passing thought, setting him off on an unlikely trip into south India's culinary hinterlands.
Looking for ways to scale up a restaurant business without stripping food of its character in the name of standardisation, Mohan and his team at the hospitality and food-and-beverage enterprise Pricol Gourmet went scouting for sons-of-the-soil cooks who best understood regional cuisines.
They brought together nine master chefs from different culinary traditions under a single roof -- a 3,000 sq ft kitchen in Coimbatore, which became a laboratory to document and standardise recipes.
Soon followed Savya Rasa, Pricol Gourmet's flagship south Indian fine-dining brand with branches in Pune and Chennai. "Savya is south, rasa is flavours in Sanskrit, so it was like an epicurean journey through South India," says Mohan.
Pricol Gourmet has since branched into more cuisines and restaurant brands -- Soy Soi (Asian street food), Rasanai (south Indian street food), Dou (bakery and continental food), Madras Tiffin Room, The New Punjab Club, Little Soi, Austin, RE Garage Café, and The Catering Co.
Operating system
Savya Rasa is currently readying for a makeover ahead of embracing the franchise model three months down the line. Modern French cooking techniques, creative plating and a chic, less formal ambience will be added to the mix, while preserving the cuisine's original flavours, says Mohan. All the outlets of the ₹110-crore Pricol Gourmet venture are now company-owned.
To expand beyond the south, in "two new cities", Mohan is interviewing potential franchisees and evaluating their commitment.
The culinary styles of the brands in the Pricol Gourmet portfolio may be poles apart but what unites them is the team's scientific operating system, he says.
At a training kitchen at the group's Coimbatore facility, the team has compiled about 2,600 recipes and is developing a "culinary operating system", says Mohan. The objective is to standardise everything from vegetable cutting to ingredient quantities and cooking methods, supported by written operating manuals and videos. "With Chennai as our home base and Coimbatore as our culinary research base, we will grow across India," he adds.
Passion project
But this growth, he stresses, is not a numbers game. A restaurant business should chase consistency and quality, not valuations, he says. "This is a business primarily driven by passion; we are privately owned and under no pressure. We are a zero-debt company," the serial entrepreneur adds.
The Pricol family holding company had funded the business for the first 5-6 years, and it now generates enough cash to support its growth. Mohan is also preparing to hand over day-to-day responsibility to the next generation. Younger daughter Manasa is learning on the job to take on a larger role at Pricol Gourmet, with CEO Binu Thankachan supporting her.
As to the missing ingredient in today's food businesses, Mohan flags the need for more chefs and service teams who can reproduce standards across restaurants. "This is why we are setting up a skill development centre to train around 5,000 people a year," he says.
And where does he see his bouquet of restaurants in a few years? "For me, as a personal goal, I want to take fine south Indian food to the tables of London and New York. And as a precursor to that, we are now experimenting with modern south Indian food."
"True-blue, soul-of-the-earth restauranting by passionate owners and teams is missing," he replies.
For now, the test is whether Savya Rasa can evolve with its customers while retaining the regional identity and whether the systems built in Coimbatore can help the company reproduce that experience in newer cities.