City sees 14 more Well Food outlets by end of this year

Well Food, a concern of Chittagong-based industrial group Well Group, will increase its outlets in Dhaka to 20 from the existing six by the end of this year generating jobs for another 300 people, said one of the company's top executives.
At present, the food giant has six outlets in Dhaka operating for the last few months and 15 in Chittagong. Opening of the new 14 outlets at strategic locations in the capital will require an estimated investment of Tk 60 million.  
 "We have four major outlets at Gulshan 2, Panthapath, Tajmahal Road and Darus Salam and two express outlets at Kalabagan and Mymensigh Crossing. This year we want to open new outlets at Wari, Baily Road, Uttara and Dhanmondi subject to availability of space," Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Well Group Syed Nurul Islam told the FE recently.
Well Food was established in 2000 with a view to providing quality food with open kitchen concept at a limited scale at OR Nizam Road. From the very beginning, the foods were priced high to maintain quality.
Initially, investment was to the tune of Tk 30 million which now has increased to Tk 500 million over the last 13 years with annual turnover of Tk 200 million. The total number of employees in its production units stands at 400 and sales 200.  
"Many of our well-wishers warned us at the beginning as to how people can afford bakery and confectionery items at such higher prices. But we were confident that if we could provide good quality and tasty foods, people would be ready to pay," said Mr Islam.  
The main challenges in opening outlets in Dhaka are availability of space and its price. If per square feet space in Chittagong is Tk 50, it ranges between Tk 150 and Tk 200 in Dhaka which ultimately increases the product cost and affects consumers. The product price varies by 10 to 15 per cent between Dhaka and Chittagong.
Another challenge in providing quality and tasty foods to consumers is the raw materials of bakery and confectionary, specially vegetable and milk fats and decorative materials.
"We import vegetable and milk fats from Belgium and New Zealand. Sometimes we use the butter of Milk Vita," said Mr Islam. He said they import wheat to make flour on their own because Bangladesh is not a wheat-producing country. That's why the company cannot rely on the quality.
Mr Islam hoped the demand for quality food will increase over the next 10 years with Bangladesh turning into a middle income country. And for that, availability of raw materials will be a challenge to produce good food at an affordable price. Both the government and private sector should start working immediately to overcome the challenges.
 "The government has imposed 100 per cent duty on milk and dairy products. But we are not a milk-producing country and it is simply impossible to be so because of the scarcity of grazing land for the cattle," he said.
The market for premium quality bakery and confectionary foods is growing by 10 per cent every year.
"For producing high quality and tasty foods we have to depend 100 per cent on imported items specially for major components like flour, fat and cream," he said.
The government, he suggested, should lower the duty on processed milk and encourage the entrepreneurs to add value to milk by producing milk-based products like fat and cream. Or businessmen should be encouraged to import palm oil and dalda to produce margarine.  
"We have to promote dairy from the nutritional point of view. If the authorities cannot lower duty on milk and other dairy products, we will not be able to produce quality and safe food and this will create the scope for adulteration," Mr Islam said.