Sarang Sindhi Cuisine, initiated by a Sindhi women entrepreneur named Ms Abida Talpur five years back in April 2014. Ms Abida with her husband Mr Mustafa Talpur and the eldest son Mr Sarang once planned to go for business and they initially thought to start with Boutique, But because of the core specialty of Ms. Abida and her passionate work towards the Kitchen they put their heads together and revised their decision after measuring the feasibility of Boutique business they thought it might not be much creative and new. So, they wanted something which shall be creative and must be out of the box because they don’t want themselves to engage in some sort of companions and thought and brought themselves on a single decision which was shifting towards the hotel industry.
Hotel Industry was a completely new idea for them. So, it was initially a big challenge for them but due to the best cooking test and Sindhi typical food recipes, Ms Adbida was fully confident that she can do that. And with that confidence, they finalized to start with the hoteling and serving unique food into the market of Islamabad.
Inception and History of Sarang Sindhi Cuisine
Initially, Ms Abida was working on her beauty parlour in F-11 Markaz, Islamabad. This business continued for several years. Most of the close friends suggested them to open a restaurant because they saw the visible opportunity. At first, it seemed merely as an idea where she had no experience, but she took it as a challenge and started working on this opportunity. After a long and hard struggle, she entered into a completely new market a restaurant industry.
Among the many restaurants prevailing in the vicinity at F-11 Markaz, Islamabad, Sarang Sindhi Cuisine took its birth in April 2014. The name Sarang Sindhi Cuisine was derived from the name of the Mrs Mustafa’s eldest son Sarang and the Sindhi culture to target and attract people by providing a complete rich Sindhi culture and to promote Sindhi cultural test in the capital of Pakistan ever in the first time of the history. Owner of the restaurant Ms Abida Talpur was inclined to Sindhi culture. Wherever she visited she used to wear Sindhi dressing (Ajrak and full covered dress). Her inspiration and love for the Sindhi culture were so intense that she embedded this in her restaurant. The logo was also depicted to represent this Sindhi culture.
At the initial level, Ms Abida served the food through home delivery only. She used to cook the food in her house and hired a rider to deliver the order. And she carried the process for a complete one year from April 2014 to February 2015. And in all of that time period she used to answer the calls by her own, from the confirmation of the orders to cooking and giving to the delivery boy, she was all alone in all of that process. Not only that she had to take her little children as well. Because her eldest son has to work on his education and her husband was an office worker, he is still doing a Job in Islamabad. So, she was all alone for one complete year. With the passage of time, there has been increasing of routine customers and those customers forced this Talpur family to start their restaurant.
Well, initially they hired a shop to start within F-11 Markaz, Islamabad. And spend around Rs.1 million to pay the 6-month rent of the shop and it’s advance plus agent commission. But they managed the budget because Ms Abida had some savings and her husband was doing the job so he had also a good amount on their savings. So, they afford the payment and started operating the business from one shop and three employees.
Marketing & Expansion Strategy
Operations and Marketing
In order to run the operations of the business, Ms Abida initially hired 3 to 4 employees. Three of them were from Sindh and yet they are stacked with the business and one was from local, Islamabad who was working as a rider/Delivery boy. They were paid an average Rs.15000 to Rs.25000 on monthly basis. The employees included chef, cashier and a waiter. The menu included Veg, non-veg and beverages. The most popular item was Sindhri Tea with cake giving customers a great sense of taste. It is offered in two categories i.e. Golden (Highly special in quality) and Sheesha (A normal quality Tea), both served with a different style. To ensure quality, the owner personally procured and inspected the raw material to give customers great taste in all food categories. For him, these small efforts not only satisfied customers but also helped the company to serve its customers in a better way.
The restaurant menu includes items like Sindhri karahi (chicken, mutton), daal, chole, paratha, rice and lassi. The menu price ranged from Rs. 30 to 1200. The taste and presentation of the food were so attractive that customers ordered twice than required. The restaurant runs around 12 hours a day. Price modifications were based on inflation. The average bill a customer paid ranged from Rs 400 to Rs 500. The food charges were satisfactory and business remained profitable.
Sarang Sindhi Cuisine attracted its customers from nearby locality, students, Sindhi community in Islamabad, Culture lovers, Foreigners and hygienic food lovers.
Sindhri management also keeps a strong focus on customers’ satisfaction. They encourage direct feedback and improvement a customer want in the restaurant. They return food if customers complain about the quality of the food. They also bring new trends laying in the industry and try to incorporate them.
The communication strategy they adopted was primarily word of mouth by providing quality food to its customers. They also market their restaurant on social media, particularly on Facebook. As Facebook considered to be the cheapest and easiest source of reaching out to the maximum people.
Positioning:
Sindhri restaurant’s positioning is strong enough because it is in a posh area of Islamabad. Since its inception, it provided quality food and better services. It has positioned itself as the “Best quality food with reasonable prices”. Furthermore, the positioning of Sarang Sindhi Cuisine can be judged by its customers. A small level survey was conducted by KTN NEWS channel and covered the reviews of different customers and captured them in their cameras. Some defined it as “Reasonable prices and high-quality tea and especially biryani” and others said “Quality food and best service”. Resultantly, the majority of students said “Reasonable prices and high-quality food”
Competition
Here comes an interesting thing that will also shock you when you will be reading this case. And, when we asked the owner of the restaurant about the competitors. She just gave us a little smile and answered that she has no direct competitor and because she never thought, studied or faced any sort of completion before her. Because she used to work her own yet, and she is training to her student junior chefs, the cleanness and even the purchase of vegetable, rice, and especially cooking oil by her own direct from the market and rice from Sindh. So, the test, uniqueness and full dedication never let her any chance to even think for the competitors. She is just doing her best. And this is the reason that she is now rented two shops, 15 employees, give take-away, and registered with food panda who is also helping a lot of additional sales as well.
