CAFE CULTURE IN CHENNAI

Chennaibest.com caught up with Edwin Paul, General Manager - Sales, Qwiky's, and spoke to him about Qwiky's and the cafe culture in Chennai.

The concept was born in the United States, not only to cater to the needs of coffee drinkers, but also in response to the need for space.  It all started in the heart of Silicon Valley when Sashi and Syam the founders of Qwiky's, decided to address this need for space. We were discussing business plans when we saw that India was a virgin market. We would be leading the market.  Everybody was saying that if we could crack Chennai, which was more conservative, you could crack any market. 

Chennai has been the pioneer in many things like the first Drive-in.  In the beginning, the practice of calling the customer's name was difficult.  We thought it would be the girls who would take exception to it.  But it turned out to be otherwise.  The guys were offended and they were like "Who are you to call my name?" and all that.  The ladies were really cool about the whole affair.  Someone can even give his or her name as Mickey Mouse and it is ok.  It is just that we do not want to call you by the name of the items that you ordered or the "black t-shirt with the glasses".  We wanted to relate to you more as a friend, rather than as a customer. 

There have been coffee places before Qwiky’s.  Like someone would have a favourite place to have coffee, like the Drive-In or some special place.  While this has always been there, what triggered the café culture was the ‘space need’.  A place where you could hangout for free, browse through magazines you know, let your hair down and best of all, be comfortable doing all this. 

We wanted to address the need for space and position ourselves as a friendly neighbourhood place where you can sit back and relax, connect with others…make friends.  We also introduced loose seating. If you have come alone you can pull up a chair, face outside and forget the café.  Inside Qwiky’s it is a different world all together.  We went in for the pub format because it offered many options in terms of the space need, the hangout and the friendly neighbourhood ambience.  We wouldn’t say we offer the best coffee.  We put a copy of the Rolling Stones for free on the news-stand.  It costs around Rs. 450 /-.  But for me, it is okay if a hundred guys read it.  We have live bands playing and we pay them, but I do not pass on the cost to the customer.  Right from day one we believed that the place outside the counter was not ours.  We were there to serve, keep the place clean, but not administer the crowd over there.  It is their turf.

I would even say that we triggered the glass façade craze in the city.  "Because the World Can Wait ", that is what we believe. You sip a cup of coffee and relax while you watch the world outside struggle, even as you take a break between your sales call or after work.  The whole concept beat our own expectations by about 300%.  We reached our breakeven three times faster than we expected.

There are various steps that the coffee beans undergo before you sip that perfect cup of coffee.  The coffee beans are purchased from the best coffee estates in India.  Only Arabica beans are used in all coffee varieties at Qwiky’s.  Arabica plantations, which are grown at heights 3,000 feet above sea level, require stable growing conditions and are very expensive to grow.   The coffee trees are pruned as they grow, to make harvesting easy.  They bear fruit in about three to five years, after being planted.  The coffee cherries are then harvested by hand.  Coffee beans are the seeds of the coffee cherries.  We use Peaberry variety in most of our blends.  While ordinary coffee cherries produce two coffee beans, the expensive Peaberry variety, which we use produces only one cherry.  The beans are separated from the cherries through a process called pulping, and are dried.  The dried coffee beans are then slow roasted.  Slow roasting extracts the essential oils, reduces acidity and results in less caffeine.  The beans are then grounded using imported Burr grinders, which grind the beans evenly, unlike the ordinary electric grinders.

We have been trying to mark it down.  But it is simply not possible.  We wanted it to be a class-neutral place.  But then we got complicated because of our timings.  We are open from seven o' clock in the morning till eleven in the night.  So it is difficult to point out too much.  At seven in the morning it is the early morning joggers and a little after that there are the business executives who want to grab a cup of coffee and catch up with the morning newspaper.  After two, there are the teenagers and the decibel level really hits the roof.  It kind of becomes intolerable.

By seven in the evening this crowd starts breaking up and there is a lull for the next hour and a half or so.  This is because we are typically not a lunch or dinner outfit, which again would explain the lull in the afternoon.  After 8.30 p.m. comes the cream of the lot.  Families of three generations in three cars who spend some time having coffee or ice cream.

The need was expressed from the host.  Lifestyle had invited us to run the café over there.  It was like they had a café, which was running at a loss.  They persisted because they felt it was necessary.  Last year, we ran the F & B operations at the Gold Flake Open and it was so impressive that the CEO of Lifestyle called me up on the cell and asked whether we would do it.  They have a percentage of the profits.  Also, even though the ‘Coffee Island’ can be seen from the outside, if you have to enter it you will have to pass through almost the whole store to reach the pub.  So even if someone were to enter Lifestyle just to come to the Coffee Island he would be passing through so many departments.  So it is also a value addition.  Again, at the Coffee Island, we have takeaway cups for just Rs. 10/- for the customer who wants just a cup of coffee.  And the best thing is we have been making profits.  The tie-up with Lifestyle is countrywide for all their destination stores.

Merchandise at Qwiky’s has become a rage.  The whole idea was not to make it obvious.  The idea was to keep rotating the merchandise.  It plays an aesthetic role.  We have primarily items which can be termed 'impulse buys'.  It is not the kind of things which you have to decide that you have to buy and come.  We don’t go in for that kind of positioning.  We have a guy who has bought more than a dozen t-shirts just because they were at Qwiky’s.... for no other reason.  It was not that they were exceptional.  We keep changing the brand and the merchandise. So what you see this week may not be there the next time you come.

The ambience plays a very important role.  What needs to be understood is that a pub is a business of convenience.  The location is most critical.  We need to address the issue of being comfortable.  Your home is obviously not like the Taj.  So the ambience should address the need for ‘comfortable space’, something in which you have to be yourself and not be self-conscious.

The coffee business can keep on absorbing players.  The statistics from mature markets like the US, are phenomenal.  Out there, on a road like Sterling Road, you would get close to at least five or six coffee shops like Qwiky’s.  There is always room for more. 

There are two metrics to go by.  One is the number of cups and the other is the number of people who come into the pub.  But we wouldn’t have a correct idea, if we were to go by the number of people coming into the pub, because there are people who come in and stay for hours and buy just one cup or not buy at all.  And there is just one person who may buy half a dozen cups.  There are no ‘peak hours’ in one slot. It is spread through the day between different groups, like I said earlier.  Going by the number of cups, we do about 400 to 500 cups a day, on an average.

Qwiky’s did not want to be branded a South Indian company. We wanted to be nationwide.  We chose Chennai and then we went to Hyderabad and now we will move into Mumbai, and then Delhi.  We wanted to cover the 'A' cities first and later the 'B' cities. We are in a tie-up with Bharath Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), coming up with a kiosk concept, where the coffee will be for something like Rs. 10/- or Rs. 15/-.

We have had Abbas, Madhavan, Ila Arun and a host of contemporary Tamil actors and actresses, Phil Spender of Ford, people from the consulate, and many others.