Home ›› 24 Apr 2022 ›› Business Connect
From hanging out in city restaurants and love for culinary delicacies, an idea about food business crept into the mind of a bunch of young chaps.
Initially, they went traditional, with fast food items like pizza, pasta and Thai food, but customer response was lacklustre and revenue was meagre.
So, they conceived of a masterly idea – serving special occasion dishes – which no one else had beaten them to it, and which clicked well following a brief period since inception.
Sensing the pulse of consumers, the young entrepreneurs came up with the offer of serving savoury dishes like Mutton Tehari, Kacchi, Morag Polaw, Plain Polaw, Chicken Roast, Jali Kabab, Beef Rezzla, AstaKhashi, etc. typical of what is given out during weeding ceremonies or such grand occasions.
Thus popped up Sultan’s Dine, a patrician name for food’s sake, where foodies can readily enjoy the grand dishes at their own sweet will.
“During our school and college days, we used to love eating in different restaurants in cities. Now, we love serving delicious food to our customers,” said Foysal Ahmed, managing director of Sultan’s Dine.
“With the traditional food business, we were not happy. We identified a huge gap in wedding food business at restaurants, and turned to it.”
Now the diner has stood out among the crowd as one of the dashing and popular restaurant brands with its signature item kachchi biryani while its managing director shared how they embarked on the restaurant business with these correspondents.
“Sultan’s Dine is famous in Dhaka for its kachchi biryani and it currently operates eight outlets in Dhanmondi, Bashundhara, Gulshan, Baily Road, Uttara, Mirpur, old Dhaka and Chattogram,” according to Faysal.
There are about 35 people employed directly in each outlet while there are indirectly more people involved in the delivery process.
“Becoming an entrepreneur was always in my subconscious mind as I was born in a business family,” Foysal told The Business Post while talking to the daily at his Gulshan office.
“At first step we had restaurant business in fast food category, but this type of business was already saturated and growth was stalled. So, we the friends were discussing where the gap is in the market and subsequently discovered it.”
People enjoy food at wedding ceremony and eat with pure satisfaction. The taste of wedding foods trickles everyone’s nostrils but they cannot enjoy it whenever they want it, he explained.
“Finally we decided to serve in our restaurant wedding feast for consumers whatever and whenever they want to have it.”
To talk about his education, Foysal said he studied Business Studies but to gather experience he worked for corporate houses like Partex Group, IT Farms, Apollo Hospital, now Evercare, while Sazed, his partner, worked for a bank and was also a top performer in GP latent hunt.
After completion of study from Singapore, food business was taken as a pilot project, he said, adding that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s motivation to do business instead of running after jobs was also a push factor to be an entrepreneur.
How Sultan’s Dine was named
“In any kind of business, the name matters a lot for creating a brand. From the very beginning, we were very inquisitive and cautious about it,” opined Foysal.
The name should be relevant to the product and they wanted something that indicates aristocracy, something royal and the name goes fine with the Mughal style as well as with food they are destined to serve.
“Keeping all these in mind, we have named our venture after Sultan. It would be a game changer for the food industry.”
How recipe was developed
The entrepreneur said after having extensive food review over 1,000 people, they developed a formula to give consumers a common taste in wedding dishes.
During the review, they received opinions on whether it would be too spicy, gravy and oily, and finally came up to their decision and made it acceptable. This helped them gain popularity among the consumers.
How taste is ensured
The Sultan’s Dine has specially trained chefs who are native and who have vast experience. To ensure quality and taste of food, all ingredients are brought under a packaging system. As a result, taste of food remains same whether it is in Dhaka or in Chattogram.
Everything is controlled centrally from Dhanmondi Branch, said Foysal.
“Interestingly, people tried to develop a recipe like us, but they could not make it. It is good that they created some employments for people.”
Opportune moment
While sharing their views on business, Foysal Ahmed said the 13th of February was the auspicious day when the Sultan’s Dine got off to a good start.
“Our journey began, but it was disheartening primarily as customers’ turnout was very low. The daily turnover was ranging from Tk 5,000 to Tk 10,000, which was less than meeting our operational cost.”
“We had to struggle for three months as people needed to be familiar with Sultan’s Dine. Sometimes, they visited our outlets and went away without having food,” recalled the businessman.
However, they did not back down. Six months went by to gain the customer trust amid incurring losses.
After six months, there was a paradigm shift. They did not need to look back any more and the business got well underway. Now they gained popularity as a local brand across the country.
“If you visit our Dhanmondi outlet, you will find people are in queue to have a plate of kachchi biryani while delivery men are waiting to get the packet to deliver.”
“Instead of struggling to survive, we now struggle to tackle the rush of crazy food lovers. Even customers have to place pre-order to consume the dishes of Sultan’s Dine.”
Social media review gave a boost
In today’s tech- and knowledge-based society, the social media like Facebook and YouTube play an important role in publicising products.
The Sultan’s Dine has also reaped the benefit of it as consumers and youTubers helped a lot in giving food reviews on different media platforms.
There will be a big change in the society, Foysal apprehended, saying that today’s technology or ideas will not remain valid 10 years later.
So, there requires gradual upgradation to cope up with the changes in people’s taste and attitudes as well as technology, he said, adding that the more people will come in food business, the more growth will be there with different types of ideas and products.
“One should not be a tech-savvy to introduce technology in business but one has to be informed about the latest technology and its uses when it comes to business promotion and development.”
Message to future entrepreneurs
Asked about what future entrepreneurs should keep in mind, Foysal said one should not calculate profit or loss from the beginning of business.
“One should give cent percent service to the clients and make them satisfied. Create an image and a brand value through commitment and services. The core target should be client satisfaction,” he advised.
“Your name and fame will draw consumers, and if that happens, money will be the logical consequence.”
Future plan
With the growing popularity, consumers are increasingly turning toward Sultan’s Dine and it has become a hub for enjoying lunch or having a favourite hangout with near and dear ones.
“To retain the momentum and the influx of consumers, we are planning to bring our new signature products as well as ensuring the same taste and quality at every outlet,” said the restaurateur.
The demand for new outlet outside Dhaka mostly in Sylhet, Chattogram and Cumilla is growing, but the Sultan’s Dine management is very cautious about offering franchise.
“More and more people are keenly interested in taking franchise but we will offer only when we will see that quality and taste are guaranteed.” As part of its future plan, the diner is trying to gear up catering services. From the beginning it was focused on dining in and takeout, and its next big leap is catering services.
“Reaching people easily, we have developed app and anyone can order foods residing within five kilometres,” Foysal pointed out.
What is needed to drive up SMEs?
Access to finance is a great limitation for startups or a new entrepreneur, the entrepreneur observed, saying that in the traditional banking and financing system, new investors are hardly lent money without collateral.
He said there are hundreds of young educated talents who have bunch of innovative ideas and want to be entrepreneurs instead of thinking of traditional jobs. They want to be employers rather than employees.
To nurture the dreams of the young generation and create more employment opportunities, the government should develop a mechanism to ensure access to funds while big corporate houses could come up with funds to resolve the shortage of funds, he suggested.
Sultan’s Dine reviews 20 per cent to 30 per cent consumers to get feedback which is taken into consideration in monthly research and development. It is designed to learn about customers’ satisfaction.
Challenges faced
Asked about challenges, Foysal said it was very crucial to manage customer at the very beginning; besides, it was a challenge to feed Biryani in luxurious restaurants to those consumers who are fond of rice.
In addition, there were challenges to convince the land owner and attract the investor, but everything was done successfully, recalled the entrepreneur.
“There are some issues that create obstacle in becoming a businessman. Think about VAT, which comes into force before starting productions. I think there should be a grace period for small and new entrepreneurs to encourage investment.”
The customer satisfaction is the top priority for Sultan’s Dine. Those who want to shine in business should not think of making any profit or loss at the very beginning; instead they should focus on their services, advised Foysal.
Sharing an experience of customer service and satisfaction, he said: “We have a regular customer who is fat in physique and who comes to us to enjoy plain polow .”
“He used to come twice or thrice a week. We served him fresh and hot polow . Now he is our regular customer.”
“We have many customers. The name and fame of Sultan’s Dine has spread across the country. But there was a big struggle behind the success.”
Products
The Sultan’s Dine serves Mutton Tehari, Kacchi, Morag Polow, Plain Polow, Chicken Roast, JaliKabab, Beef Rezzla, Chutney, Burhani, ZafraniSarbat, AstaKhashi, Soft drinks fountain, Firni and Jurda.
The price of Mutton Tehari (Half) is Tk 199 while Kacchi (Basmati) for per person is Tk 420, Chicken Polow Tk 299, Plain Polow Tk 99, Chicken Roast Tk 140, Jali Kabab Tk 50, Beef Rezzla Tk 180, Chutney Tk 20, Soft drinks fountain Tk 35 for per glass, Burhani per glass Tk 60, Zafrani Sarbat per glass Tk 80, Asta Khashi (per order) Tk 15,000, Firni Tk 60 and Jurda Tk 60.
Kacchi (Basmati) with Burhani, Jurda/Firni is priced at Tk 499 for per person and Kacchi (Basmati) with Chicken Roast, Burhani is priced Tk 599 for per person, and Plain Polow with Chicken Roast, Burhani costs Tk 250 for per person.
