Established for five decades, Relief India manufactures catering equipment for professional kitchens and food service industry in the country. With a range of some 250 products, it tries to meet most of the needs of the industry whether it’s a large institutional kitchen or a small speciality restaurant. The services include consultancy, design, manufacturing, supply, installation, and after sales service for commercial kitchens. Relief India’s kitchen equipment range comprises Cooking, Refrigeration, Bar-be-Que, Catering, Washing, Buffetline, Bar, and Storage Trolleys.
Rajeev Sachdeva, Director, Relief India, shares details about planning of required kitchen equipments for the HORECA segment.
How is the professional kitchen equipment scene in India?
Earlier manufacturing facilities were lesser in number, today it’s not so. The number of imported professional kitchen suppliers has also increased. Use of fabricated equipment has gone up considerably and we are glad that we operate in this space. We specialise in fabricated professional kitchen equipments and even customise projects. Catering to the HORECA sector comprising hotels, restaurants, pubs, bars, fine dine, etc. wherever the food is prepared in bulk, we are involved right from planning to installation for the brands. There are installation charges only for the big projects. The cost of our equipment varies with the format and the menu to be offered.
How do you go about planning of required kitchen equipments for the brands?
Planning the required kitchen equipments for a brand, depends on the area available, cuisine served, number of people to be fed, and the restaurant category above all, i.e. whether it is a QSR, fine dine, pub, etc. For fine dining, for e.g., the thumbrule is that 60 percent area should be set aside for kitchen facilities and 40 percent for the guests. However, in India people dedicate an average of 20-25 percent for the kitchen and we then have to plan it accordingly. Big brands do not involve us in the planning because they have a set concept and fixed pattern, like Subway has fixed number of items more or less and all they need is a counter. We do the planning only for the standalone restaurants offering multicuisine.
We also have our own research facility where before planning we research about the latest equipments in market and latest technologies being used.
Who are your clients?
For QSRs we work with Subway, Nandos (we have just tied-up and finalizing the deal), Pizza Hut and KFC among others. Recently, we have also tied up with Dixie Chicken, a British brand, which has just opened two outlets in Kolkata and Trivandrum. In standalone restaurants, we cater to Bercos, Blues, Amour, Court, Blanco, Backyard, and Pind Baluchi Group. Some of the hotels that we cater to include Taj Group, Sarovar, Park Plaza, Hyatt, etc.
