Coronavirus scare eats into Bengaluru food businesses

As normal life is disrupted in this tech city in the wake of coronavirus scare, it is the food and beverage outlets, malls, restaurants, pubs, clubs and other businesses that are at the receiving end, stakeholders rued on Friday.

Though the Karnataka government has not not -- so far -- imposed a blanket lockdown, many small eateries and food and beverage (F&B) outlets still open have been hit hard.

The Bengaluru hotel Association has 1,500 members representing 1,021 eateries, 365 cafs and bakeries, and 115 fine-dining places.

Venkatesh Raghu, a new entrant in the F&B space at Jayanagar through Amande, a patisserie, said he is facing unexpected hardships.

"A lot of demand for our products comes from the malls. They have since refused to buy our products due to the lockdown. Since we are in B2B and B2C business, we are unable to supply anything, resulting in heavy losses," Raghu told IANS.

As part of the partial lockdown, all malls and theatres in the city are shut till March 31, disrupting the whole suppliers-buyers-customers chain.

"I run a restaurant and need to pay staff salaries, rentals, electric bills; so this lockdown will really impact our working capital. I really hope things will recover soon once the outbreak subsides," Raghu hoped.

Rajesh, 40, a kirana store owner at Kodathi near Sarjapura Road, said his regular customers, the daily-wagers, have stopped buying from him.

"Many daily wage labourers are my regular customers. Nowadays, they are missing, resulting in decreased sales," Rajesh told IANS.

Similarly, Pixel, a food court in Forum Shantiniketan mall at Whitefield is getting rid of its perishable raw material as the mall would be shut till the month-end.

"We can keep dry non-perishable raw material for longer. But we are getting rid of whatever perishable raw material is left with us. We cannot keep it for long," an official working at the food court told IANS.

He said that the food court is emptying all frozen ingredients like chicken, meat, pork, vegetables, and other items used by different restaurants at the food court.

"Whatever raw material we can salvage, we are sending it to the airport KFC and other restaurants as these are still open for business. With regards to the frozen food, we check expiry dates and discard them accordingly," he added.

Pixel houses restaurants such as Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), Burgerking, Dominoes, a Thai concept restaurant, Tiffin Express, Taste of India, Marhaba, Krispy Kreme and others.

"Most of Pixel`s more than 100 employees have already returned to their hometowns. It would not be easy to find food and other essentials due to the shutdown till March 31," he said.

However, amid the coronavirus gloom, there is good news: The food court is paying full salaries to all its employees.

Subbaraju Penmatsa, managing director of Prost Brewpub, a microbrewery at Mahadevapura, told IANS that business had dropped by 80 per cent since February.

"Due to the fear, we also faced 50 per cent party cancellations from corporates to avoid social gatherings. Right now, we are investing time to train our staff," said Penmatsa.

According to Kshitij Neelakantan, co-founder of Naagin, a hot spicy Indian sauce, COVID-19 has impacted the whole food industry, starting from farmers to large multi-national companies like Nestle and Unilever.

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Meanwhile, food vendors and small restaurants on Bengaluru outskirts near Sarjapura are still operating, with their regular clientele continuing to patronise them despite the lockdown.