“Alcohol sales saw a big spike, as average time spent per consumer at outlets was more,” said Vikrant Batra, founder of Cafe Delhi Heights. “Malls also did phenomenally well because of the heatwave. That’s another reason we saw spike in sales at our mall outlets.”
During an otherwise lean season for pubs, bars and restaurants because of people being away on summer vacations, the IPL final in Chennai triggered a dramatic spike in footfall and sales across the cricket-crazy nation, executives said.
“The weather gets cooler in the evening and nothing beats dining and watching the IPL finals outdoors,” said Saurabh Khanijo, managing director of Asian cuisine chain Kylin, which operates Kylin Skybar. “We had coolers, misting and stadium vibes in place. We were booked for the evening.”
Batra of Cafe Delhi Heights, which operates 43 outlets across Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Chandigarh and Lucknow, said many prefer to watch at least one innings in full, so average bills are proportionately higher.
AD Singh, managing director of Olive group of restaurants, said, “We were absolutely booked out. People looked for places to watch that had lots of other people watching too.” Olive operates Olive Bar & Kitchen, Monkey Bar and SodaBottleOpenerWala.Bars, cafes and pubs said they leveraged the tournament with large screenings, stadium-like vibes, themed menus, 25-30% off on alcohol, watch parties and consumer promotions that began with the play-offs (knock-out matches) 10 days before.The spillover was seen in restaurants as well, as families stepped out too, executives said. Pradeep Shetty, president of the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), said Sunday night saw a 30% uptick in footfall at restaurants.
For centres such as Delhi-NCR, which had two dry days on account of elections until Saturday evening, the IPL final turned out to be a big draw, executives said.
Sandeep Anand Goyle, who heads the Delhi chapter of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), said many city restaurants, pubs and bars were packed on Sunday. “Saturday (till 6 pm) was a dry day because of the elections so there was good business on Sunday because of the IPL final,” he said.
Bookings also surged over the weekend amid expectations of a closely-contested final. Eesha Sukhi, founder of The Bluebop Café in Mumbai, said it was fully booked and saw a 50% jump in sales.