Maharashtra relaxes curbs for restaurants, malls; experts weigh in
Maharashtra government has relaxed COVID curbs with new norms coming into effect from August 15. Amit Agarwal, Group CFO, Raymond, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, and Anjan Chatterjee, CMD, Speciality Restaurants, discussed this further.
Maharashtra government has relaxed COVID curbs with new norms coming into effect from August 15. The big change is that restaurants are now allowed to remain open till 10 pm on all days of the week at 50 percent seating capacity. Currently restaurants are permitted to offer dine-in services only till 4 pm, however, they are allowed to continue with takeaways and home-delivery services. Further, shopping malls will also be allowed to open for fully vaccinated employees and visitors. Amit Agarwal, Group CFO, Raymond, Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India, and Anjan Chatterjee, CMD, Speciality Restaurants, discussed this further.
“It is a very welcome thing. Mumbai is a very big market for us and this particular opening, which has happened is going to surely help us ramp-up revenues,” said Chatterjee.
“Over a period of time, cloud kitchens have saved us. The delivery model, which we were not into earlier during pre-pandemic period. It is here to stay but at the same time, we continue to be a fine-dine chain which is dine-in. At the moment, we are at 65 percent delivery and going forward, there will be a little balancing here and there but delivery won’t come down,” he said.
Around 40-45 percent of the overall revenue of Speciality Restaurants is concentrated in Maharashtra.
“It is a welcome move by the Maharashtra government. It improves the sentiment of the people. The good part is that on the high streets, people are free to come and shop. Shops and restaurants are open till 10 pm. People want to have an opportunity to come and relax. From August 15, people will have a relaxed time, they can go, shop and eat. We are coming into the festive season in October, November. So people can come shopping,” said Agarwal.
“I can tell you that based on the vaccination progress and the Q1FY22 performance compared to the last year’s lockdown, there is a significant improvement. We expect a strong season and good demand in the festive season and post that, in the wedding season as well. We see this year being better compared to 2021,” he said.
“It is a welcome move for the shops, malls and restaurants to open and be able to work late but only if people who are working inside these places are all 100 percent vaccinated, plus they have to complete at least 14 days post the second vaccination. We would hardly have 10 percent of the people eligible for coming and working at these places. The devil is in the details here because if we have to work legally, most of us need to shut down,” said Kumar Rajagopalan.
“In the month of May, we wanted people in the retail to be taken as frontline workers and their vaccinations done, it didn’t happen. In the month of June, some of vaccinations got done but most of them are eligible for the second shot only by the end of August, which means by mid-September is when most of the employees would have completed the requirement to be able to come at work. So almost 85-90 percent of the employees are not eligible to come and work in retail business,” he said.
“On the face of it, all of us are happy but if we have to follow the law, I don’t know how the retailers and various restaurants, malls can work. So, there is a bit of a notification requirement to be changed here,” he stated.
For the full interview, watch the accompanying video.
(Edited by : Dipika Ghosh)
First Published: Aug 12, 2021 1:37 PM IST
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