German professional kitchen equipment player Rational is focussing on its top model SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency to penetrate the Indian market. Combi master plus is another top selling model of the brand. Rational recorded a turnover of almost 500 million Euros last year and expects a 10 percent increase this fiscal. With a strong dealer network and their sales team, Rational is making its presence felt in the whole country. Almost 50 percent of the brand’s sales in India are through repeat sales.
Currently, there are two major products in Rational’s portfolio, i.e. SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency for multiple a la carte service and bulk production and Combi Master Plus. Food Express in Chennai serves clients like Victoria’s Secret feeding 15,000 people using Rational units. However, apart from that, for big catering companies Rational has a 40-tray product. The SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency offers advantages like 70 percent less energy consumption, 95 percent lesser fat, 20 percent less shrinkage as compared with traditional kitchen equipments.
In India, Rational currently has 65 demonstration centres all across the country. “We call customers to a unique marketing concept started by Rational called the Rational CookingLive where we invite the customers and show them the benefits for free, so we act like consultants. Fortunately, every kitchen has an issue and we try and give a solution to this. This is like a capital investment in any kitchen and we say the payback period of SelfCookingCenter whitefficiency is normally one year. There is a 70 percent saving on energy, 30 percent increase in efficiency, 30 percent better product output, 20 percent reduced shrinkage as compared to the traditional equipments. We have over 3,000 satisfied customers in every segment of the market. I must say in a very short period of time we have 70 percent of the market share in the country. We are not the only manufacturers, we have 60 competitors but the kind of work Rational is doing will definitely change the way India will cook in the future and we are working,” says Pinaki Banerjee, Chief Representative, Rational India.
He also claims that Rational is the only company in the whole world in professional kitchen equipment segment which invests over 20 million euros on R&D on an annual basis. On the basis of the R&D, the brand introduces innovations in the market every three to four years.
The current Indian professional kitchen equipment market is a very unorganised market and there exists a wide gap between the need and opportunity, says Banerjee. A green revolution is happening in the kitchen industry. He further added that one of the biggest challenges today is product standardisation and staff turnover. Food safety is also getting more and more important in India which was never a consideration in the kitchen.
On the social media front, Rational is present on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. and boasts of the highest number of Facebook fans from India.
Sharing his views on the importance of India as a market, Thomas Stuetz, Vice President, Rational International AG adds that for Rational, India is one of the most important markets worldwide. “India is amongst the top five markets of Rational along with China, Brazil, and Russia. We have to establish our brand in India so we have introduced the combi-steamer here. In Europe everybody knows what a combi-steamer is but in India it is not so known so that’s why we have put in a lot of effort into this. Our unit has a perfect efficiency for the Indian kitchen. We have a lot of trust in this market and so we have invested a lot in this market. We are now a team of 30 people in India along with 60 freelancer chefs and 110 technicians. Last fiscal was a very significant one for us with Pinaki’s team having achieved a triple digit growth compared to the year before. India is different from other markets because we have to adjust our products to the Indian cooking for instance we have an Indian cookbook, our application chefs are here from Germany to develop solutions that make the life of the people working in commercial kitchens much easier.”
Stuetz mentions that India, China, and Brazil are important markets for Rational. People in India are used to traditional equipments so changing their mindsets is a big challenge. To address the issue, the brand’s chefs accompany the customer where they cook for atleast one day. Rational Academy also gives the customers a chance to cook with chefs once a month.
Banerjee states that Oberoi, Taj, Lalit, Paradise Biryani, Reliance Retail, ABRL, Chokola, Fresco, Akshardham, Osho Ashram are among some of the clients of Rational. The company claims to be the only one in the country offering 24/7 support on the service side. With every unit sold in India, a mandatory induction training is given to every customer.
Initially, the brand focussed on Delhi and the Northern market which is by default its biggest market as of now. After North, Rational forayed into the Western market and for this year the brand will focus on South. For this year, Rational plans to have one Academy in big cities every month
Rational has sold 650,000 units worldwide so far. It has 110 certified service centres and 250 chefs working worldwide.
