This Is The Story Of Boss Ta Wan And Ichiban Sushi About The Difficulty Of Surviving The Ongoing PPKM Period

Ta Wan Restaurant. (Photo: Lippo Mall Puri)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected the health sector, almost all sectors have experienced the same thing. The culinary business sector is no exception. In the midst of high cases of COVID-19 and the implementation of activity restrictions (PPKM), not a few culinary entrepreneurs have fallen.

The founder of Eatwell Culinary Group which manages Ichiban Sushi, Ta Wan, Eat and Eat, Sumarno Ngadiman admits that the number of visitors has decreased. He said the impact of this activity restriction was very large for his business.

For example, said Sumarno, during the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) last year, the restaurant he managed had peddled their products on the roadside. According to him, this is a defensive strategy which is to pick up the ball.

Furthermore, Sumarno said the decrease in visitors to the restaurants he managed had an impact on the company's cash flow. Because, turnover plunged far from normal conditions.

Because of that, said Sumarno, he had to change the type of business a bit, where initially he could eat on the spot or dine-in to a delivery order. Because, this time the government re-implemented PPKM level 4.

"Usually being able to eat at the place now is not allowed because of PPKM. So this is a new challenge, we will maximize it on the delivery platform," he said in a virtual discussion, quoted Friday, July 30.

Furthermore, Sumarno said that despite experiencing difficult times, the quality of the restaurant's food he managed would not change. He ensures that the quality of food until it reaches the customer is the same as when eating at a restaurant.

According to Sumarno, delivery orders are the best way to survive. With this scheme, the company can still survive to serve customers and struggle to pay employees, to pay rent.

"People are looking for food no longer at the place but rich platforms are at Go Food, Grab Food. So there is a new channel to sell. And how products appear. It's a new challenge. We launched online delivery. The important thing is to live and survive first, " he said.

Trying to survive by selling on the roadside

Director of Operations of PT Eatwell Culinary Indonesia who oversees Ta Wan, Andrias Chandra said this was done so that his business could survive in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. He explained that this strategy was only implemented after the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government Anies Baswedan decided to re-implement the strict large-scale social restriction (PSBB) policy volume II.

This PSBB is indeed different from the first implemented in early March 2020, where shopping centers and restaurants may operate. However, restaurants are still not allowed to serve dine-in or dine-in.

"Yes, it's true selling door to door. We picked up the ball because dine-in was closed. Since PSBB was tight again on September 14 yesterday, we carried out this strategy. That is indeed one of our efforts to be able to continue to survive in these difficult times," he said. , when contacted by VOI, in Jakarta, Thursday, October 8, 2020.

Not only implementing the strategy of picking up the ball, Andrias said, in order to attract consumers, his party also sells food at a much cheaper price than the one sold in his restaurant.

Currently, PT Eatwell Culinary Indonesia oversees several well-known restaurant brands, namely Ta Wan, Ichiban Sushi, Dapur Solo, and Eat & Eat.

"The price of food in our group is around Rp. 22,000 to Rp. 30,000 per serving. We have chosen the type of food. Because even though we are door to door, we still maintain the quality of the product," he explained.

Even though he has been selling on a street like that, Andrias admits that he has not been able to cover the cost of renting the mall to electricity. But according to him, this is much better, at least the income is good enough to increase the cost of employee salaries.

"The sales that you get are decent, but if you say you can cover all overhead costs, etc., that's not enough. At least there is cash coming in to pay employee salaries. That's our main target at this time," he said.

Despite the decline in turnover, Andrias said, his party still supports the government's program for handling the pandemic. So, they will follow the existing rules. He hopes that this pandemic can be over soon so that his business can run back to normal.

"The purpose of selling on the street is only so that we can still open outlets, employees continue to work. Instead of being laid off or being laid off, we try our best to survive this way. same with us," he explained.