KOCHI: The concept of Janakeeya Hotels selling good homely food for Rs 20 to ensure that no one in Kerala goes hungry was well-received. But four years down the road, of the 1,198 Janakeeya Hotels started in the state, 300 have downed their shutters. Many more are on the verge of closing.
However, among the many stories of failures, the Janakeeya Hotel named ‘Samridhi@Kochi’, run by the Kochi Corporation, stands tall. The restaurant, which began with a motley crew of 14 women sourced from Kudumbashree units in the district has turned 100% self-sufficient.
“We are now an establishment with a 98-member crew of women selling more than 300 products,” says an official with the Kochi Corporation. According to him, the withdrawal of government subsidies is the main reason why more and more Janakeeya Hotels are facing closure. “It was bound to happen anytime. Running on subsidies is not a good business model. So when Kochi Corporation decided to establish a Janakeeya Hotel in Ernakulam, we planned to execute the project with self-sufficiency as a target,” he says.
The government stopped providing subsidies to the Janakeeya Hotels in 2023. “We completely weaned ourselves off sponsorships by the end of 2023. And today the restaurant is standing firm on its foot. We are supported by the Kochi Corporation in our endeavour to provide good, hygienically prepared food.
The corporation helps out by paying electricity and water bills plus the rent,” says the official.
According to him, a lot of study went into making the restaurant self-sufficient. “Imagine selling food for Rs 20 per meal! When running a restaurant, we have to take into consideration a lot of factors. When the project was launched, it was thought to give food at Rs 30. The price of a meal was again revised to Rs 10 and now finally stands at Rs 20. However, providing food for Rs 20 is not possible without having financial backing,” says the official.
The model proposed was to pad up the sales revenue with the government subsidy and donations or CSR funds from the companies or institutions. “This was thought of since sales revenue would never be enough to run the endeavour.
You have to consider the cost of production too. In our case, we found that in the initial days (when the meal was priced at Rs 10) even though we got more than 3,000 customers, the sales revenue was just around Rs 30,000 compared to the production cost which hovered around Rs 60,000. Cash flow became an issue, with even the government subsidy coming after two or three months,” says the official. This was no way to success, he adds.
So, we decided to introduce specials. “The idea came from the study that we did. It was found that nearly 80% of those dining at restaurants order specials. So, we thought even if 50% of our customers order specials that would be enough to increase the sales revenue. We introduced fish fry as the special. However, it was found that not even 20% of our customers ordered specials. We even tried lowering the price from Rs 50 to Rs 20. But it was a failure,” says another corporation official.
But that didn’t bog down those behind the project. They came up with the idea of introducing a variety of quality products and changed their operating time to 24 hours. “That saw a significant increase in our sales revenue. Today, we are making and selling more than 300 additional products besides the meals. The situation is such that when the government stopped providing subsidy, we were not affected,” he adds.
Samridhi@Kochi today has 98 staff. “Every woman in our establishment gets a salary of Rs 30,000. Not only the restaurant but also the women have become self-sufficient,” says the official. According to him, Onam sales were also very good. “We got more than 1,000 dine-ins and more than or an equal number of parcel orders. We couldn’t cater to the parcel orders and had to shut down the facility after becoming overwhelmed,” he adds.
"We sold about 800 litres of payasam on Thiruvonam day. Though we serve five types of payasam every day, for Onam our menu included palada, semiya, parippu, wheat and pal payasam,” says the official. Highlighting that this business model can be replicated everywhere in the country, he says, “Every business needs to be self-sufficient.”
Janakeeya hotels in Kerala - 1,198
Number of Janakeeya hotels closed - 300
Samridhi@Kochi - Launched in 2021
Number of employees
Started with - 14
After four years- 98
Number of products other than meals - over 300
Status - Achieved self-sufficiency