With creating brand Amigo’s, Tariq Bhat popularised pizza in valley
Within 10 years of his ‘humble’ beginning, this 33-year-old Tariq Ahmed Bhat not only developed Kashmir’s appetite for pizza but has been able to also disrupt the traditional restaurant business of the valley with providing an alternative successfully.
Started with two people, three serving tables and Rs 1.2 lakh investment in 2008 as a ‘kind-of-a’ sub-franchise of a ‘not-so popular’ Indian pizza chain outside Amar Singh College in Gogji Bagh area of city, which would see hardly any customer during the initial days, is now the most popular pizzeria of Srinagar. Amigo’s, as the restaurant was later named, besides serving about 50 varieties of pizza, is now offering Lebanese, continental, Indian, Chinese, fast foods and other Italian dishes with staff support of 150 people in its three outlets with a daily business of about half a million.
A 2006 science graduate from Amar Singh College, Tariq like any other youth of Kashmir wanted to go for some government job after completing his education.
“My father was a government officer and I was expecting he would help me in getting some job. But he did not,” says Tariq. “I had never thought of doing a business. It was sheer coincidence of being at the right place at the right time, which became reason for me to venture into this business.”
A family friend suggested Tariq’s father that to make use of their two idle shops outside their home in Gogji Bagh they should open some kind of a business. The family friend was also friends with the owner of a pizza franchise in Srinagar, which was recently opened then, he helped the family to make an arrangement for selling the pizzas at their shop.
While a semi-trained chef and a waiter was hired to run the pizza shop, Tariq was asked to sit at the counter as he was not doing anything at that time.
“It was a very difficult thing earlier and we had to be extremely patient due to non-popularity of the pizza here in Srinagar city. It is very difficult to introduce a new idea in a place like Kashmir, which is already facing many challenges,” he adds.
Finally, Tariq, who was not initially that much interested in the business, took the lead and started to look for the ways to make it work. After, observing for some time and thinking about different aspects of it, Tariq found that, besides pizza not being that popular, the stuff they provide is not also quality wise that good. So as a first step towards the improvement, Tariq hired a well-trained chef.
“The chef was highly trained and very sharp but would throw lot of tantrums. So it was very hard to work with him. But I would deal very patiently with him. We started to prepare the pizzas on our own instead taking the semi-prepared stuff and within sometime things started improving,” says Tariq.
He says within the span of next two years, when Tariq started to give attention to all aspects of the restaurant personally, daily sales reached Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 and the clientele increased day-by-day.
Besides his hard work and stress on quality of his product, Tariq says there was an invisible hand in his success.
Besides its main restaurant in Gogji Bagh, Amigo’s Foods and Hospitalities has now two more self-owned restaurants, one outside Kashmir University campus in Hazratbal area of the city and another in southern Kashmir’s Anantnag town. It also has home delivery facilities in most of the areas of Srinagar city.
Tariq says Amigo’s clients are not Srinagarties only but people from far-off places like Kupwara, Bandipore and Shopian come to eat at the restaurants or takeaway.
“The Anantnag restaurant of Amigo’s has been first such place in the second largest town of Kashmir, after Srinagar city. Before, opening Amigo’s in the town there was no such place for people to go out. It has developed the culture of eating-out in the town, which is good for overall business of the town,” says Tariq.
For Tariq, there is no compromise on quality and hygiene of food, and services even if that comes at a cost.
To keep grip over things and maintain quality, Tariq has learned all the technical aspects of the trade himself. He has even received training in the pizza making. “So there is no chance for things to go out of hand. I take charge of things myself, whenever there is need,” he says.
While there are no immediate plans of opening new outlets, Tariq is working on some other projects in the food industry.
The first project is a mechanised bakery unit, which Amigo’s is setting up at Khanmoh Industrial Estates. “This project is near completion and we will be providing all items of bakery, biscuits, cakes, confectionary etc from the coming Eid.
Amigo’s second project is from farm to table. On experimental basis, Tariq says, he rented a poultry farm and started rearing chicken on his own. “The aim is to have control over quality and know what you are feeding your customers,” says Tariq, adding that all the chicken consumed this year by Amigo’s was self produced. “When there are so many apprehensions about the chicken, we know what we have fed them and can provide assurance to our customers.”
However, Tariq wants to take a leap in the sector, which can lead to lot of employment generation and help empower local farmers.
Tariq claims that he has never taken a loan from bank or received any other financial support except for the initial investment of Rs 1.2 lakh from his father.
“However, whatever I earned, I reinvested it in my business instead of buying properties or spending on buying expensive cars,” he says.
But he says it needs lot of family support. He thanks his father and brothers for taking responsibilities and making Amigo’s what it is today.
His advice to youth is that money or finances can never be a roadblock for becoming an entrepreneur. Business is not about money, it is about an idea and its execution with a rebel attitude to do it, he says.
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