Pub Convention was a new addition int the 4^th edition of Fast Food & Café Convention in Bangalore (Hotel Lalith Ashok).  There’s an exponential growth in the number of Pub/Microbrewery across the country.  This has brought about many areas of discussion that can’t be mixed with QSR/Fast Food industry. A separate convention was very much the need of the hour.

The panellists and speakers’ part of this convention specifically shared insight into the Pub/Microbrewery industry.  There were plenty of panel discussions and breakout sessions part of the conventions.  The keynote address was given by Manu Chandra, Bengaluru Chapter Head, NRAI.

Pub & Microbrewery Industry

Bangalore city has been called the Fashion City, Garden City and as the Pub City.  The popular ones in the past like NASA, Night Watchman, Pub World, Downtown and many more were located around MG Road & Residency Road area.  Now, with the city expanding massively, there are many pubs across the city.

If we were to talk about Microbreweries, Biere Club on Lavelle Road was the first.  This was the followed TOIT, Arbor Brewing Company (ABC) and Windmill Craftswork.  Then we over the last 5 years many more have come up like – Byg Brewski, Brewklyn, Druid Garden, Beer Garden, Prost, Bangalore Brewworks and more.  Latest to join the list include Biere Kitchen, District 6, Communti, Hoot, Red Rhino, Whitefield Arms, Biergarten.

This industry has been growing slowly day by day and the brands have seen many issues.  The panel-discussion and speakers discussed on topics that concerned the industry.

Speakers & Panellists

• Ajay Narayanan (CEO, Windmill Craftorks),
• Pravesh Pandey (Founder, Byg Brewski)
• Ranveer Sabhani (Business Head Bangalore, Impressario)
• Sibi Venkataraju (Co-founder, TOIT)
• Sunil Munshi (Sr GM, Orion Malls)
• Amit Roy (Partner, Watsons)
• Pretekk Chaturvedhi (Founder, Ministry of Beer)
• Rahul Singh (Founder, Beer Cafe)
• Rohit Parwani (Head Brewer, Biere Club)
• Sanju Arora (GM, Irish House)
• Raghunandhan Prasad (Founder, The Yellow Submarine)
• Abhijit Saha (Founding Director, Avant Garde Hospitality)
• Prathik Shetty (Founder, The Reservoire)
• Karthik Shankar (Sotally Tober)
• Prasad Narasimha (Head Business Development & Mentor, Sherlocks Pub)

Agenda for discussions

Set the Bar High with Branding

A company’s brand is like its seal of quality.  A brand reflects the ethos & conviction of the people behind the business and directs the perception of customers about the company.  It is the business role to shape and nurture that perception, so it is important to remember some of the intangibles that create a brand.  The panellist discussion on what works and what doesn’t.

Employee development for creating sustained culture

An employee’s level of engagement heavily influences a customer’s attitude towards the brand, creating that unique feeling which makes a pub stand out from the others.  Investment in employee development can help in bridging the gap between customers digital and in-person experience.  Considering this, understanding the employee’s needs is becoming crucial.  Employees need to feel empowered & challenged while doing work that’s meaningful.  Creating a learning and growth-oriented culture may be the solution, and in turn, also help in long-term employee retention.

Bar Thefts & Wastage – Manage & Minimise

Theft, wastage and spillage have an unapparent but sizeable impact on the profitability of business.  Finding measure for handling these can significantly improve gross profit.  Setting down directive for employees is one side of thing but often on the flip side, owners are tempted to steal from themselves in a na attempt to fortify relationship with a free drink every once in a while, for friends and family.  Where does one draw the line for a fair and desired outcome?

Sustained Bartending – What does it mean for your bar

With sustainability slowly becoming global buzzword in recent times.  What are the obligations as bar owners and global citizens in order to spearhead a culture or responsible and conscious fun? The bartenders are the obvious contenders for bringing big change to the way things run at your bar. But the whole team should be involved in innovating and ideating Green ideas, recycling using leftovers, sourcing local ingredients – the options are many.  The key is to instill more mindful approach to each action, each drink and each interaction one has with the customer.

Building Digital Story around your brand.

Is your brand appealing enough to the hyper-aware and demanding new generation of customers? How do you cater to this new lot, without losing sight of your core customers needs? With the increasingly self-absorbed customer that values his smartphone over interaction and engagement in the physical world, what strategies emerge to rope them in? Could innovation in product, format, presentation or offering be the lure or will the challenge require something beyond convention? Is it time to rethink and reimagine your outreach program?

Apart from the above topics, there was a specific session by ‘Ripple PM’.  In this session the brand shared about the New Innovation apt for Pub Industry.

Event Sponsors & Partners

Kingfisher Premium, Tornado, Dineout, Veeba, Foodland, Chuck, Xeno & Newly Weds.

Media partners for the event included FBCI, Brewer World, Bulleeha, Bark.  Special thanks to FBCI for extending the invite to me.

Exhibitors

To take opportunity of the event and spread awareness, plenty of brands setup their stalls in exhibition area.

Kingfisher – Well known beer brand across the country that’s one of the go to beer for everyone across the country.

Mahou – Mahou is a Spanish brand of beers brewed by the Mahou-San Miguel Group. The brand portfolio contains a variety of beers including non-alcoholic and mixed varieties. The Mahou brewery was founded in Madrid in 1890.  Currently they are popular in North Indian and trying to make inroads into South Indian market.

Care & Clean – This brand makes cleaning solutions that are specifically meant for HoReCa customers.

Kerry – A company that makes some of the best flavors, emulsifiers, texturants, seasonings and more.

Foodoo – The company has an extensive range of food & beverage products.

Forstar – They offer various convenience-based solutions for food service industry under one roof.  They famous have Automatic Pizza Production Facility & Automatic Mom Making Machine.

Overall Experience

It was a well-conceived convention to focus on the Pub & Microbrewery industry.  There was good participation from the leading brands who shared many of their stories.  The topics selected were discussed in details and many owners of brands in the audience took back useful points.  I especially loved the session in which they discussed about the Bar thefts & Wastage.

With the success of the convention in Bangalore, I feel from next year both the Fast Food and Pub Convention can happen on different days.  There were good number of exhibitors for the Pub Convention even though it’s happening for the first time.  Next time I am sure there will many new brands across India showcasing their products.

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Fast food & Cafe Convention

Fast Food & Café Convention