Food and Hospitality Sector Confronts Rising Costs and Compliance Challenges at Delhi Event
Key stakeholders from India's food service and hospitality industry recently convened in New Delhi for the Saksham seminar, a critical gathering aimed at addressing the mounting pressures of escalating costs and shifting compliance requirements that threaten business continuity and sectoral expansion.
Operational Strain from Soaring Expenses
During a press conference held alongside the seminar, leaders from the HoReCa (Hotel, Restaurant, and Catering) and F&B (Food and Beverage) sectors highlighted how surging energy costs, volatile input prices, and shrinking profit margins are increasingly dictating daily operational decisions. This economic squeeze has forced businesses to scrutinize maintenance protocols, procurement strategies, and compliance adherence more rigorously than ever before.
Pawan Agarwal, CEO of Food Future Foundation and former CEO of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), emphasized the evolving regulatory landscape. "In a high-pressure environment, the risk is not deliberate non-compliance, but inconsistency in execution," he stated. "In India, licensing is still often viewed as a compliance requirement, whereas it should be seen as a foundation for quality and safety. The real shift we need is from enforcement to building systems that work on the ground. Platforms like Saksham can play an important role in driving this change by enabling industry-wide understanding and practical adoption."
Ground-Level Challenges and Strategic Trade-Offs
Operators on the front lines are grappling with difficult choices as rising LPG costs, logistical hurdles, and input inflation make it increasingly challenging to uphold traditional standards of operational discipline.
Rahul Singh, Founder and CEO of Beer Café and Trustee at the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), echoed these concerns. "Growth in this sector cannot come at the cost of discipline," he asserted. "As costs rise, staying within defined operational and regulatory boundaries becomes even more critical."
These sustained financial pressures are now influencing decisions in areas that directly affect long-term efficiency and risk management. P. Sravan Kumar of Excellence Hospitality Projects pointed out the execution gap, noting, "The client and the owner, in a food business, are on the same page, contrary to popular belief, since they cannot survive without each other. But the real founding principles for the business to survive are the three fundamentals of Safety, Sustainability, and Compliance. Failure on any one of them is sure to have a spiralling effect on the other two. In the short term, one may resort to cutting corners, but in the long run, ignoring these will lead to the collapse of not only the individual business but also the food business eco-system. At Saksham, we attempt to sensitise the stakeholders, with a hope that each one will take one forward step, one step at a time."
Moving Toward Integrated Systems and Structured Solutions
As businesses expand across various formats, the necessity of transitioning from fragmented practices to cohesive, integrated systems has become increasingly apparent. Sanjay Jain, Director of Elanpro, stressed the importance of structured interventions. "The focus now has to be on enabling businesses to move from intent to execution," he explained. "Saksham is designed to create that shift—by bringing together the right expertise, frameworks and industry dialogue to support more structured and consistent operations."
Core Discussions and Industry Representation
These pivotal conversations formed the heart of the Delhi edition of Saksham, a knowledge-driven industry initiative by Elanpro in association with HCF, dedicated to advancing safety, sustainability, and compliance across the food service and hospitality sector.
The seminar featured a diverse array of industry voices, including:
- Chef Manjit Gill
- Pawan Agarwal, CEO & Founder, Food Future Foundation
- Rahul Singh, Founder and CEO, Beer Café, Trustee, NRAI
- Animesh Gupta, VP, Varun Beverages
- Swapnil Deshpande, Vice President - Business Development, Swastik Synergy
- Vikas Ahluwalia, AVP & National Head – Zone, The Park Hotels
This gathering reflected a broad cross-section of leadership spanning operations, policy, and hospitality, underscoring the sector's collective effort to navigate contemporary challenges and foster sustainable growth.
