Serving the finest in F&B

What was your motivation to come to this (Food and Beverage) industry?

To be honest, I do have a career. But this is something I am really passionate about. That passion is what drove me to enter this industry. It doesn't mean that I have to sacrifice my career. In addition to that, I myself am a potential client. During my trips abroad, I found that the quality of food and ambience of the restaurant with respect to the price were something that we couldn't find in Bangladesh. So I thought there must be thousands of Bangladeshis who are craving such a restaurant or food chain that would provide excellent food in a great space but at a reasonable price. In short, I, through Olive Tree Foods Ltd., want to lay the cornerstone of modern F & B in Bangladesh. Plus we want to show people that the F&B industry is a place where there is scope for talented people for a rewarding career. These were my sole motivations.

How big is the F&B industry in Bangladesh?

Since food is one of the very basic necessities, you can probably imagine how huge the industry is. Most employed people are now having their lunch and dinner outside. With more women joining the workforce, there is a steady decline on the dependency of homemade food. If you consider one crore middle income people spending Taka 200 per day for food outside their house then the F&B industry becomes a Taka 60,000 crore industry at least. So you can easily see how enormous this industry is. 

What was the toughest part when you started Olive Tree Foods Ltd.?

Frankly speaking, it's really hard to pinpoint a single aspect as the toughest part in the industry.  There were several challenges that we faced. We want to provide premium food for people at a sensible price range. And since we don't compromise with the quality of the food, we have to face stern competition with our competitors. Moreover, people in Bangladesh are very price sensitive. Hence only a few understand the value of the product or food that we offer in this price range. But the good news is the situation is slowly changing. People are becoming health conscious, which is definitely great news for the modern F&B industry.

We also face an acute shortage of talented human resource with industry-specific skills in Bangladesh. The scenario is even worse for F&B. It sees one of the highest employee turnover rates. Scarcity of fresh ingredients is always a big issue.

In the modern F&B industry, what is the compensation structure like? What is the scope of developing a career here?

I would like to address the salary issue in two different parts: the present salary situation and the potential salary in the future. Since the industry is in a very primitive state, the salary in this industry isn't that promising yet. But it's not the case if you have experience in industry or if you are a really great chef. The good news is that industry veterans are coming here now. Hence the salary structure is getting a gentle lift. In the next couple of years, we are going to see a surge of foreign players. This will for sure take the compensation packages of people in this industry to another level.  At Olive Tree Foods, we have a very good salary and benefits package for executives; it's at par with any local FMCG.

Many entrepreneurs are interested to start restaurant businesses here. What would be your advice for them?

It's great news indeed that more and more educated and passionate people are investing in the modern F&B industry of Bangladesh. My advice for them would be to do adequate research about the target industry before starting the business. You have to have a clear philosophy, or vision, and mission when you start. Also one needs to have proper infrastructure to run the business smoothly. By infrastructure I mean quality control, operations, sales-marketing, human resource, facilities management, customer service, supply chain, research and innovation, etc. It might be one person carrying out all the duties but it needs to be addressed.

Where do you see Olive Tree Foods Ltd. and this industry five years down the line?

This industry holds great potential. But so far we have done very little for it. We need new concepts. I am not going divulge them now, since these are business secrets and Olive Tree Foods is already working on some of them.

As for Olive Tree Foods Ltd., we want to see ourselves as one of the top F&B operators in Bangladesh. We want people to be confident that Olive Tree Foods restaurant will deliver great ambience and great food without compromising on the quality. 

Engineer-turned-writer, Shahriar Rahman is Sub-Editor of the tech publication of The Daily Star. He is also Head of Operations at HiFi Public