Transition from quick service restaurant to robot dishes

Established in 2012, Eshwar K. Vikas and Sudeep Sabat, Mukunda Foods, Eshwar says, is determined to mechanize the creation of Indian food varieties. And now, with contactless products becoming more common due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there has never been a busier time for Mukunda Foods.

Mukunda foods

Transition from quick service restaurant to robot dishes

With the situation of COVID-19, businesses have understood that investment in technology is the key to any reasonable success. In fact, it has accelerated the pace at which businesses work. India has given its debut in the ‘new industrial revolution- business 4.0- which outlines the use of technologies like the net of Things (iot), machine learning, automation, advanced engineering. One of the latest trends that have emerged within the Indian producing business is industrial automation. Industries are progressively observing cost-efficient ways in production, which has diode to a lot of automation in factories.

The Journey

One of the organizations that had the option to deal with the interruption in the FMCG region with its robotization innovation is Bengaluru-based Mukunda Food. Sudeep and Eshwar started Mukunda Foods as a chain of quick-service-restaurant (QSR) outlets in Bangalore to sell completely different varieties of dosas. Automation wasn't even on the cards.

"Inside Bangalore, dosamatic became well known for "making dosas naturally." As the orders developed for a long time, the fellow benefactors chose to progress from the QSR plan of action to assembling and selling these machines." 

But soon they started facing problems like workers not turning up or the chefs taking too many leaves. These things lead to questioning the standard and consistency of food, and also impacted the profits. This was when Sudeep and Eshwar set to leverage technology to automatize their business processes. Having associate engineering background helped in taking care of the technicalities. The company’s 1st product- dosamatic- was created in Mukunda’s shops, Gradually, different restaurants started paying attention and placed orders for this machine.

Later, they created additional machines (such as RICO, Eco fryer) to alter the making of alternative preparation dishes like Chinese, North Indian, and more. Mukunda Foods was later incubated by the Indian Angel Network (IAN). In 2013, the company came from incubation-raised funds which were led by IAN investors Hari Balasubramanian and P Gopinath. The company conjointly raised funding from Incubate Capital Partners, the venture arm of Gurugram-headquartered SAR group in 2018. They raised around 40000 crore Rs. When they had launched, the machines were priced at around Rs 50000. Today, they sell at Rs 1.5 lakh.

Regarding the question of expenses and costs associated with using these machines, he tells that if there was a chef, they will usually draw a salary of 30000-50000 a month and can’t make more than 10 dishes in an hour but then if it’s a machine which has been replaced even though they are little expensive there only have a onetime installation cost and can make 30 dishes in an hour and there will include other costs like maintenance and energy which will cost around 7-8% only.

Efficient development

Eshwar says that the challenge until the date has been customization. In manual cookery, someone has the liberty to feature ingredients or fill the gaps even when the dish is ready. In the case of machines, it's different, this is where hiring plays the most vital role - obtaining the proper talent to assist the team to apply technology most effectively. “Bangalore has many r&d centres and facilities. In this way, we had the option to enlist the most brilliant personalities in robotization,” Eshwar said. Today, these machines have many choices that facilitate to cater the various tastes of a client. As an example, the dosamatic machine offers over fifty kinds of dosas, from tender versions to uthappams - the choices are plenty.

From outlet requiring three-four individuals, the owners will currently hire only 1 or 2 if they install these machines. It additionally reduces wastage of food as only a certain quantity of ingredients is put in the machine.

Today, Mukunda Foods counts many well-known names among its B2B purchasers like ITC, Rebel Foods, Wow Momo’s, Chaayos, The Bowl Company, etc. More than 3000 machines have been installed in India and countries like the US, Australia, and Singapore thus far. 

Covid 19 times and future plans

At a time where the necessity for contactless transactions was needed because of the pandemic, mukunda foods took this opportunity to help many hospitals in Bangalore. Hospitals that were facing workers shortage in their kitchens benefitted vastly from these machines. The company additionally saw a large uptake of orders for these machines since the pandemic.

Today, mukunda is in the plan of adding another business model to its existing one - kitchen as a service (kaas). Through this model, the company aims to manage an automated -driven cloud kitchen (a cloud kitchen utilizes an advert kitchen for the aim of making ready food for delivery or takeout solely, with no dine-in customers.) To owners including installation of machinery and one person to manage it. 

Eshwar says they're targeting fifty such models by the top of this year. When asked the key question on everyone’s mind concerning automation - regarding the chance of job losses because of machines exchange humans. Eshwar told that the job losses can be compensated in other ways.

For instance, if a business owner now hires two people for an outlet for which it used to hire four, he can use the money saved to open and expand the number of outlets, which in turn will lead to more job creation

Name: Shwetha Rajan 

Batch: 2021-2023

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shwetha-rajan-745b831b4