An iconic eatery that’s not 95 years old, but 95 years young. Yes, that’s what Rajesh Kumar Singh, director at Flurys has to say about the brand. As the age-old city landmark steps into its phase of 50+ outlets, The Telegraph sat down for a chat to know more about what’s in store. Read on.
What’s going on with the Flurys brand right now?
In the last couple of years or so, we have tried to add the outlets in Calcutta. And just in the last two years, we added close to around 25 units, and in the last financial year, we added 16 units. We plan to add another 10 units in Calcutta in the next three to four months. The whole objective is to kind of grow this brand and turn it into a pan-India brand. We have our presence in Delhi, we have one unit inside The Park hotel. In Navi Mumbai, we had one unit, now we have kind of just last month opened one unit in Belapur. The plan is to move into most of the metros and make this brand a national one. I think it has a very strong brand recall pan-India, whoever has travelled to Calcutta knows what Flurys is. It’s also because we have seven units at the airports.
What’s next in store for the brand?
The Park Street outlet is undergoing renovation currently. If you see the facade is completely changed now. The plan is to redo this entire place with a new design, post the busy season. A lot of exciting things are in store for the brand moving forward.
The brand was founded in 1927 and in 2017 we celebrated 90 years for which we had a grand party here and we are looking forward to our 100-year celebrations in in 2027.
How long have you been associated with the brand?
I have been here for the last five-plus years. I joined this company in 2016. I have been in F&B throughout my career, including Pizza Hut for around 14 years.
How do you think the pandemic has impacted the industry, and how has it shaped the future of the brand?
I remember that when Mr (Narendra) Modi announced the lockdown on March 23, 2020, we as a brand took a day’s break and from the 25th we actually started supplying bread because we knew that there was a scarcity of bread in the market. The response was overwhelming and we ended up catering to over 55 large complexes across the city.
From a business point of view, it has taught us to rethink the way we look at and do businesses. We were fortunate that we fell into the emergency service category so we kept our operations afloat. Slowly and gradually, we had opened up and once the lockdown was lifted we were able to kind of regain the momentum. This year (2021) has given us a true picture of business post-pandemic. There has been a surge in footfall, especially during Durga Puja, it was fantastic. We were one of the very few restaurants to doubly vaccinate our employees early on. Fortunately, the weather has been fantastic and we saw a buoyant market this Christmas season. Being a responsible brand we made sure we follow all Covid protocols. Our patrons feel confident in us.
Eggs Benedict, Strawberry cubes, Rum Ball, Viennese Coffee
You spoke about changing the look and feel of the place, what menu changes can we expect?
Our chefs are working on it. Other than our signature breakfast menu, we keep changing our dinner and lunch menu. In fact, earlier we only had American breakfast, but now we have incorporated demands such as a vegetarian breakfast and a Spanish breakfast. We need to keep giving our customers a chance to keep returning to us.
What is the story behind the name Flurys?
This was actually started by Mr and Mrs J Flurys. In 1965, the Apeejay Group took over and since then it has been called Flurys and not Flury’s.
Any change that you would like to make to the brand?
I can tell you that if I even make a few grams of change to the dishes, my patrons would find out and protest. On weekends, we have actually seen three generations coming in and relish their favourites, so I’d rather not make any changes. I think we need to keep evolving and we need to keep bringing in something new to give our customers. We have been trying to stay in tune with the times and hence are in talks with big mall players in cities like Mumbai to expand our presence. We have also made ourselves available on Amazon and Flipkart so that our products can reach far and wide.
Recent new outlets
Navi Mumbai
Durgapur
City Centre 1
City Centre 2
Dunlop
Tobin Road
Bhowanipore
Nagerbazar
Diamond Plaza Mall (Nagerbazar)
Jodhpur Park
Coming soon
Chandernagore
Durgapur
Mumbai (Colaba)