F&B businesses prepare for a busy time during Ramadan

Come Ramadan season and the first thing that comes to mind is the sumptuous buffet spreads laid out for iftar (buka puasa).  For restaurants and hotels, the joy of breaking fast during the holy month is made sweeter with the merry chimes of their cash registers.

When Lebanese expatriate Toufic El-Ozeir, 39, and his Malaysian wife, Sharifah Zainab Hafidh, 49, opened Al Rawsha, initially a 400-seat Arabian cuisine restaurant in Jalan Damai, Kuala Lumpur in 2004, they thought a Ramadan buffet would be a good way for Arab students studying away from home to get together. The buffet was priced at RM25 per head and just covered their costs. The Ozeirs saw this as their personal contribution for the fasting month. The response was beyond their expectations as students came from as far away as Cyberjaya and Universiti Islam Antarabangsa in Selayang, filling the restaurant with some 100 customers a night.

Castle in the city: Al Rawsha restaurant in Jalan Kampung Pandan, Kuala Lumpur.

Since then, the Ozeirs have learnt that buffet spreads are a necessary feature in the festive landscape of the Malaysian Ramadan season. Having moved from Jalan Damai to Jalan Kampung Pandan and increased dining capacity to 1,500, the RM25 price tag for their Ramadan buffet is only applicable for children. Adults pay RM59. From last year’s records, total takings per night during Ramadan season has been hovering around the RM30,000 mark.

Action time

Oliver Cheng, 52, currently the director of sales for Premiere Hotel, a business hotel in Bandar Bukit Tinggi, Klang, affirms that in his 18 years of experience as a hotelier, Ramadan season literally means “action time” for hotels and restaurants.

According to Cheng, it is not uncommon for coffee houses to see business from some 700 diners during buka puasa time alone where gross sales can amount to RM60,000 in just four hours. The highest number of diners he has managed was at his last posting in 2008 at a 178-room hotel in Serdang where he and his team personally saw to it that 1,800 diners could break fast together.

Peak time: Cheng says business during Ramadan is not as simple as many think.

Back then, Cheng and his colleague, Alan Chong, 46, now the food and beverage manager of Premiere, had secured a deal with an oil and gas company, despite knowing full well that the coffee house could only take in a maximum capacity of 200.

Admittedly, the gungho spirit got the better of them and the men devised a set up that took up two ballrooms, the whole poolside area and all the available space at the garden terraces. This is in stark contrast to the off-festive week-day dining pattern where the whole hotel with perhaps a coffee house, a Chinese restaurant and maybe a Japanese outlet will only see some 50 customers in total at dinner time.

Time for CSR work

Cheng says of the popularity factor of the Ramadan buffet: “The season of Ramadan is seen as a time for togetherness, especially when it comes to the act of breaking fast. So, this is when companies will see it as the ideal time to get together with their staff to foster closer ties.

Moorish decor: The interior decor at Al Rawsha is a conducive environment for a good makan gathering.

“A lot of CSR work also happens around this time when residents of children’s homes will be feted. Even where families are concerned, the tendency to cook at home for large groups of people can be a challenge for a working people, so eating out is a more convenient and comfortable alternative.”

For Zainab of Al Rawsha, the Ramadan buffet makes perfect business sense. “First, it makes up for the lunch hour as the restaurant is closed in the afternoons during fasting month. “Second, it makes it easier for the kitchen staff to handle the buka puasarush. Imagine having 100 people ordering from the a la carte menu all at the same time. It will be a long wait,” says Zainab.

Preparation still vital

On whether the Ramadan season is an automatic money spinner for the food and beverage industry, Cheng and Zainab insist that marketing efforts and knowledge of diner’s preferences are still necessary. The notion of clean profit is also debatable as the staff to customer ratio has to be increased significantly.

In a 250-room hotel, for example, an extra 25 employees daily are needed to handle the increased volume of business. There is also the question of giveaways. At Premiere, they are expected to give away RM400 worth of dodol a day, which will come up to RM12,000 after 30 days.

“The Ramadan season may look like a profitable time on first impression, but it is really about having a big crowd coming to eat all at once. “In fact, our figures show that sales are better during the Arab school holiday season because that’s when entire families will come and eat throughout the day,” says Zainab.

She also points out the existence of a dining pattern during the season itself. In the first week, attendances are always smaller as diners settle into the fasting routine. At this time, customers usually number between 50 and 75 per night. But by the second and third week, things go into full swing with diners rising to 100 nightly. By the fourth week, the crowd invariably thins as this is when celebrants make their way back to hometowns and families for Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

As a direct result of this pattern, Cheng and his team have developed special price tiers and voucher books where for every 10 tickets, two will dine free. At press time, his sales team have sold some 200 books worth some RM136,000 in gross sales. Speaking of advertising expenditure, Cheng reveals they spent some RM20,000 last year, but the budget for 2012 has been increased to RM35,000.

As it is, planning for the Ramadan season has taken up some 247 hours in manpower since July. “The Ramadan season is a time for the food and beverage department to shine. If you look at past trends, this period is where sales for seminar and function rooms will take a dip. “So, revenue is largely up to the food and beverage team,” says Cheng who has set a target of RM1mil for the sales team to reach this season.

-thestar online.
http://alrawshakl.com/index.php