Manis Caf- Case Study

Manis caf is a restaurant serving south Indian cuisine which includes delicious Dosas, idlis, Vadas, Utpam and also some beverages like tea and coffee. Cold drinks are also served. Mani caf has become a brand in itself among the people of Dhanbad, the coal capital of India. Any one visiting Dhanbad is aware of the fact that the best south Indian food is served at Manis caf. It is presently located in front of Indian School of Mines campus, gate no. 1. The location of this restaurant allows it to attract a large portion of ISM students. The owner of Manis caf admits that 70% of sales of Manis caf come from ISM students. The origin of Manis caf is as old as the inception of ISM itself. Both have seen the world change around them and have changed themselves to adapt themselves to the pace and requirement of life. It all started when Mr. K.V. Mani came to Bihar (Present day Jharkhand) from Palakkad, Kerala in search of employment. Mr. Mani had a relative who was a shop owner in Jharia (near Dhanbad). Due to absence of formal education he was not able to get a good job. He used to help his relative in maintaining the shop. He had a vision that one day he was going to make it big and everything would change forever. He kept on working and saving money. He was a hard working man with a vision. In 1958, he saw the unexplored market of south Indian cuisine in Dhanbad and knowing that he was good at cooking his traditional food, he started his own restaurant. However, it could not be termed as restaurant but was a small shack in front of the ISM campus main gate. He was only 20-22 years old at the time (as told by his son). He served basic south Indian food along with tea. The restaurant had 5-7 members who dedicated their life from morning to sunset. The process of any south Indian dish requires a batter of Urad dal and rice paste. At that time in the absence of any grinding machine all the work was done manually and it was truly the sweat of Mr. Mani that his caf is still present to reap the benefits. Presently Mani caf has 12-13 workers and his son heads the daily operations. Our basic aim was to study the operations of the restaurant and the possible improvements that could be made. Amidst our study one thing caught our attention. Manis caf is doing very well and is having huge profits owing to the huge customer base built by late Mr. Mani. Customers loyalty brings great revenue even though Manis caf has changed little. Mr. Jyoti Kumar, the elder son of Mr. Mani decided to explore the upsurge of food savvy customers in Dhanbad.

Finally Mr. Kumar started his enterprise at the city centre market in Dhanbad. The principle investors were Mr. Jyoti Kumar, Mr. Raj Kishor Singh and Mr. Anand Singh. Mr. Raj Kishor Singh was the key person who wanted to open this new venture; the other two supported him as well. The beginning stage had a roll centre which began in an open gallery at the city centre. It was named Manis food court. The food court being in an open atmosphere was easily the first choice for fast food savvy younger generation. They had invested Rs.1-1.5 lakh to start this venture. They were earning a decent amount until March, 2010. They had seen a drop in number of customers visiting them. The only cause which they could identify was that city centre was turning out to be a posh location and the customers were moving away to restaurants with greater ambience. This lead those to think about a new restaurant in the building of city centre. The investors reacted fast to the need of the hour and invested Rs.9 lac to establish the facility with equipments, interiors, air conditioning and furniture. The new restaurant was named Manis. Furthermore, now they had to pay Rs. 50 thousand as monthly rent, Rs.5000/month on maintenance and Rs.35-40 thousand for staff payments. Currently, the restaurant has 15 workers, a capacity to seat 40 people and products varying from Indian to Chinese and Tandoori flavours. The roll centre still operates in front of Reliance fresh in the basement. The entrepreneurs expected their restaurant to do well but the scenario changed and they were not able to reap much benefit out of it. A loan of Rs.4 lac was taken in the earlier stages of establishment. The sales were good in the beginning up to August, 2011. An order by the district administration declared the open space in front of City Centre to be a no parking zone. Restaurant customers usually came in cars or, in private vehicles. The no parking zone brought a bad news for ventures like Manis who were much dependent on such customers. The sales dropped drastically and could never rise again. As said by Mr. Jyoti Kumar, they used to have a sale of Rs.8000/day which gives monthly revenue of Rs.2.4 lacs (approx.). This was sufficient to cover the fixed and variable cost but, to have profit he needed to have sales figures of Rs.11-12 thousand/day. The restaurant was even shut down for 1 month due to the losses. The current enterprise is struggling to achieve breakeven and a total of around Rs.20 lacs have been invested but all in vain. Our observation reveals that the facility location in the basement was the main cause of Manis not doing well. People dont like to take pain to enter a place which is too remote. There are no other competitors in the restaurant business in the building apart from small fast food joints and a lone competitor in the Mirchee restaurant.

Mr. Jyoti Kumar is thinking of many alternatives. Should he go into home delivery? Or, should he try to become a franchisee of KFC, McDonalds or, Pizza Hut? He also seriously thinks about opening a bar, should he? Or, should he have faith and improve operations further?