Smita Jatia, director of Westlife Development on Friday said that dine-in is making a comeback, slowly but surely.

“Convenience channels, which is drive-through, on the go, delivery channels have really skyrocketed and have grown more than double. Dine-in is definitely coming in slowly but surely. I just had a market visit and in Hyderabad, the dine-in is back to 100 percent. In places like Maharashtra, we can see the revival. So, in spite of dine-in still being a little muted, we are seeing 100 percent plus recovery in our business,” Jatia said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

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According to her, a lot of demand has shifted to the organized sector from unorganized players.

“A lot of demand has shifted from unorganized players to actually organized players because that's where consumers are now seeing safety and assurance. At the same time, a lot of the small players have not been able to survive the pandemic and hence, there is a huge opportunity for us to grab market share, especially in the organized sector,” said Jatia.

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“There is a lot of pandemic (COVID-19) fatigue and customers are now just waiting to go out either to enjoy occasion or just to go out and feel good. And that's why this has really given us a big boost in our demand, whether it's online and offline,” she said.

Jatia said that the store rollout plan remains intact, as it was pre-pandemic.

For the uninitiated, Westlife Development’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited, holds the master franchisee for McDonald's in western and southern India.

For the entire management interview, watch the video

(Edited by : Anshul)