Lessons Learnt

My very first successful venture as an entrepreneur was Fire N Ice. I launched Fire N Ice when I saw a vacuum for good entertainment spots in the city. But nightclubs have a shelf life and I knew that in order to continue to hold my place in the industry I had to be associated with food.

I started young and could connect with the aspirations of the youth and knew exactly what they wanted. But as I grew older, my passion for food led me to launch Maroosh, which is a Lebanese QSR chain. We were the first QSR when we opened in 2000.

While running Fire N Ice, I realized that after a night of partying what people really wanted was a nice roll or a wrap on the go. But there was no such place for a quick bite except for 24-hour coffee shops in 5- Star hotels. That's how the idea of Maroosh was born - a QSR that would cater to this crowd of party goers.

The first outlet of Maroosh was launched at Phoenix Mills, right next to Fire N Ice, so that the people partying at the club, did not have to leave the premises in search for food. The initial investment ws Rs. 7 lakhs and the breakeven happened in the first 6 months.

The biggest learning has been oursourcing the production. Earlier we used to produce at the outlet level, but this is only feasible when you reach a store count of more than 100. But if you are looking at standardizing your product, you have to support it with a strong back-end infrastructure. This is what we will be focusing on now thanks to the investment that we have received recently from Ronnie Screwvala led Unilazer Ventures. 

Our products will be made at a facility owned by someone else and will be transported to our outlets. Setting up a centralized kitchen that caters only to your outlets makes little business sense given high rent, cost of hiring skilled kitchen staff & utility costs. This ofcourse entails entering into a non-disclosure agreement and providing the company with your receipts. Besides reducing costs, outsourcing helps in maintaining standard and hygiene levels.

Also to increase revenue, you must have a good menu mix! Maroosh is a fusion of Lebanese and Indian and we have included curries & biryanis in the menu.