The brand Ohri’s has been one of the most loved names when it came to the food industry in the city. We have been choosing Ohri’s for the best family dine-in experience and things got even better when different food joints from the same group opened up over the years. Though the family belonged to Hyderabad, most of us do not know how they began their journey. We got it for you, Amar Ohri, the owner of Ohri’s group on a freewheeling chat with us where he talks about how it all started, the challenges, the pandemic times and the expansion plans..
Tell us about your journey.
It started in 1976 with my grandmother who opened a place called Eat More, Have More in Bhasheerbagh which is still running. An interesting story is that she would make the masala of the chola at home and sell chole bature and ice creams there. That became an instant hit and there was no looking back. After some time my dad got into the business and opened the Basera hotel which became an iconic hotel in Secunderabad. I did my education overseas and came back in the year 1998 to join my dad here. Since then, we have expanded by creating brands and we received a lot of love from Hyderabad people who really liked what we have done so far.
What are the challenges you faced?
Initially about two decades back everything was difficult. Finding quality manpower was not easy, I remember as we were expanding we wanted quality professionals to join my company and Hyderabad was still a small town trying to get bigger and better. The challenges of logistics, finding ingredients, and manpower, were the few initial hiccups, but then I knew that I would travel to Bengaluru, and Delhi and get people to come down. Even getting chefs was not easy. We tried to introduce a lot of things, I had to travel across the country to get equipment and people to make the vision happen.
Pandemic was difficult for every one. What about you?
The pandemic was a sudden shock to the industry, so we were asked to shut all our establishments. We did not know when it would end. Every month we would have a backup plan ready and figure out things. Everything was changing, things were not looking easy. The couple of things that we did was we retained our staff whom we could. We used our savings to continue building a relationship with our staff. We also reached out to our landlord. Everyone supported us, be it the staff, landlords or vendors they gave a helping hand to us. Together post Covid-19 the bounce back was very fast. Immediately we started a brand called Happy Take Away so that we could sustain ourselves.
How do you think Ohri’s has grown over the years?
One interesting fact of Ohri’s is that I don’t think any other city in India has one company with so many brands and experiences in one city. Ohri’s has been able to create more than 20 different brands in one city and all of these experiences have been unique with a unique menu, ambience, etc. Over the period Ohri’s has brought a lot of new things to the city. We were the first to bring in hygienic chat, a multiplex of restaurants, and the first food court in IMAX. A lot of new cuisines, formats and lot of undiscovered things were brought to the city.
What’s your take on the growing competition in the food industry?
I am happy that the market rate is growing. For a lot of people, it is easy to enter into the food business, but once they enter they realise that it is a 24/7 and 365 days of effort that never ends and we really need to be committed to the business. With food particularly and the competition, the trends have changed a bit and it has become more casual. I am happy that at Ohri’s we have changed according to the trends. Now we have cloud kitchens that we are doing well, we are looking at casual dines a lot more, and we are looking at QSR’s a lot more. Post Covid-19 there is a lot more space available for new brands to come in. And I am happy that the market size is growing.
How do you plan to expand Ohri’s as a brand?
As I mentioned, we are consolidating and evolving as Ohri’s 2.0 within the company, which means from a large size family restaurant we are looking at QSR and casual dining as the future of our business. We have opened a café called Caffeine which has grown to almost 8 outlets already, similarly, in the bakery we have opened six to seven outlets and in the restaurant format we have opened the second Tahib restaurant. There are one or two brands in the company which we want to make large in the city as well as outside the city.
What message do you give to people who take you as an inspiration?
The only suggestion is that this is a very hands-on business, you need to dive deep and be a part of it. It’s a hands-on business.