THE REAL INDIAN WAY

11th June 2007, 2:18pm

Newcomer to Eat Out's Top 50 awards last year, Tiffinbites is set to open 20 new restaurants in the next 18 months. Alan Sutton met the founder to catch up on the latest progress report

The Tiffinbites expansion programme kicked off with the launch of the latest venture, near St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London last month when an opening party was attended by Bollywood and Big Brother star Shilpa Shetty.
The venue is claimed to be the biggest Indian restaurant in the City and sets the scene for a chain with ambitious plans to go nationwide.
"We have been trialling and testing the brand for the past three or four years," says Tiffinbites CEO and founder, Jamal Hirani, formerly an underwear buyer for Marks & Spencer. "Now, with backing from a large private equity investment, we are ready to roll it out."
The Tiffinbites concept is built around the traditional Indian tiffin boxes –  tin lunch boxes containing home-cooked food — prepared daily and carried by 'tiffin wallahs' across the city of Mumbai, to the workplaces and schools of husbands and children. Some 200,000 lunches are said to be delivered in this way every day.
In the early days, Jamal's business served take away meals in plastic versions of the tiffin box, which could be taken home or to the office and re-heated in a microwave oven.
Two such outlets still operate at Liverpool Street and Moorgate, in London.
"We began as the Pret a Manger of Indian food," Hirani says. "Indian food is not normally eaten at lunchtime because it is too heavy, but our meals are very light and we got a lot of business.
"But the traditional evening market for Indian meals was not open to us. We didn't offer alcohol and there was no place to relax. So in 2004 we opened a restaurant at Canary Wharf, which is now the second busiest restaurant at the Wharf and is open every evening."
If the original units were Indian Pret a Manager, Hirani likens the new approach to an Indian Wagamamma.

NO RAVI SHANKAR
"They are not traditional Indian restaurants," he says. "No red flock walls, no Ravi Shankar background music and 35% of our customers are Indian. You don't see Indian people eating in Indian restaurants in England. The food is too anglicised."
The restaurants offer fast, casual dining in contemporary surroundings. "Your food will be served at your table in five minutes and you can be out in 35 minutes."
While all the food is made from fresh ingredients, it is not produced on site. Instead it comes from the group's central production kitchens in north London and is finished at the restaurant in a small finishing kitchen.
"Square footage in restaurants is at a premium," Hirani says. The new St Paul's establishment is 4,500 sq ft.
But although the food may not be cooked on site, the group is trading under the strapline of 'Real Indian Food served the Real Indian Way'.
"A lot of the food is cooked in tandoori ovens and we use only fresh whole spices, nothing is ready-ground. We roast our own cumin and grind it ourselves," says Hirani. "Our lamb samosas are filled just with lamb, not peas or any other ingredients. This is why we have such a large Asian consumer base."
The restaurants project Bollywood films onto white walls, as the Indians might watch a film in their villages at home. "It helps create a light and airy atmosphere."
There is no fine china on the tables. The food is served in the tin tiffin boxes from which the restaurant takes its name. Menu items include Tandoori Chicken, Lamb Rogan Josh, Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetable Biryani and Tiffin Meat Thali.
Average spend is around £12. "The meal costs around £8;  it's £2 for naan bread, plus a drink," says Hirani.
But alongside the take away and mid market restaurant sectors the group is targeting, it has found another market among contract caterers.
Tiffinbites is a nominated supplier for Compass and is also providing its tiffin boxes to other contractors, including Aramark and BaxterStorey.

RIGHT ACROSS THE COUNTRY
"We have a national market stretching right across the country," Hirani says. "Some 20,000 employees for the Royal Bank of Scotland enjoy the product every Wednesday.  Other organisations from Southampton to Inverness are also running Tiffin days, including Southampton University, Barclays and Microsoft."  It's a theme day Tiffinbites is aiming to expand.
"ISS Medicare is also using the boxes to feed doctors and nurses in some of the hospitals it serves. It's a balanced meal containing less than 10% fat so it is attractive.  Our delivery vans carry the meals to over 250,000 people a week.
"From our central kitchens we have the capacity to supply up to 300 sites. Our priority now is to find the right locations but we plan to open three restaurants in the next three months."
In support of the expansion drive, the group is running a £2 million marketing campaign. featuring a major brand communications programme.
"We're looking to increasingly push Indian food as a lunchtime experience while extending our evening, takeaway and wholesale offerings," says Hirani. "Britain has a long-standing love affair with Indian food – we want to re-ignite the fire."


Tiffinbites
•    4 Restaurants with plans for 20 in 18 months
•    Average restaurant spend £12
•    Serve 250,000 people per week
•    Nationwide delivery from central production kitchens

Head Office
717b North Circular Road
London
NW2 7AH
Tel: 020 8438 4990
Web: www.tiffinbites.com

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