CHENNAI: The food services sector has suffered an 80 per cent dip in business due to the pandemic. But, this has only forced institutional food/catering service companies to digitise their operations and reduce human-human contact to remain relevant during the pandemic.
Elior India, a corporate catering service, is among those that have instituted marked changes to operations to adapt to operating during the pandemic.
“Physical distancing is the new normal now and to ensure its implementation properly in the cafeterias, we have introduced a new feature in our platform under which chairs in the cafe are numbered and our system picks on the number and assigns the meal to the chair. The person can pick the food and go to the chair assigned to him/ her. Once the chairs are filled, our platform stops accepting orders and the supply cuts off automatically,” said Sanjay Kumar, CEO, Elior India.
“We have also given companies the flexibility to order a day in advance, so we can know exactly how many employees are going to be using the cafeteria the next day,” added Kumar. Elior India used to serve over 2,20,000 meals a day in Pre-covid times. But, this has fallen to just 35,000 to 40,000 meals a day now.
Apart from implementing physical distancing into operations, Elior is also trying to stave off pandemic woes by focussng on serving healthy and nutritious foods. Kumar says special nutritionists have been hired by the company to provide a more nutritious, if curtailed, menu.
Institutional food providers have also introduced a ultraviolet light disinfection process which they claim ensures the food is hygienic. Another food service company, HungerBox, has introduced an app that will allow entry into the office cafeteria only if one has an active QR code. Seats have to be pre-booked, and food selection and payments have to be done through the app. Kumar also believes many smaller players will leave the business, unable to sustain themselves through the crisis.