India’s restaurants must win back consumer trust amid hygiene crackdown: Fine-dine chain Impresario exec

New Delhi: Restaurants across the industry need to be "more transparent and accountable in gaining back consumer confidence", Divya Aggarwal, chief growth officer at fine-dine chain Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality, said amid ongoing sweeping crackdowns and suspensions by regulators in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

"There is a need to address these (hygiene lapses) with sincerity, wherever this has happened. While making procedural standards is easier, adapting them on the ground is more difficult for all players," she told ET in an interview. "There is more awareness, more conversations. But there's also a lot of confusion too, as there is a lot of content on social media, all of which you can't be sure about," she said.

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Impresario Entertainment & Hospitality operates Social and Smoke House Deli.

On Tuesday, the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suspended the licences of four outlets of Jubilant FoodWorks-operated Domino's Pizza across the state, the latest among prominent restaurant chains and hotels called out for either hygiene lapses or storage and labelling violations.

In Karnataka, the state Food Safety and Drug Administration (FSDA) called out lapses in storage, expired ingredients and hygiene violations across hotels Lalit Ashok, Radisson Blu and Shangri-La. With prominent chains such as Punjab Grill, Aditya Birla New Age Hospitality-operated Flint & Waarsa, Parsi Dairy Farm, Willingdon Sports Club and Domino's under scrutiny for hygiene lapses and violations, trends such as people opting to "cook-at-home" or "stop-dining-out", at least for the time being, have turned viral on social media platforms such as Instagram and X.

Aggarwal said the numbers are not showing that people are not stepping out to dine, but added: "We anyway talk about food processes and checkpoints. But with everything that is happening, you become more alert. One thing is very clear - we must be guest first, consumer safety first."

She said Impresario crossed FY26 with a topline of ₹800 crore, led by Social, which she called the chain's primary growth engine, with a store count of 55 outlets across nine cities. She added that delivery-only brand stores are contributing 10-15% to total topline. Asked about speculation about a potential listing, Aggarwal said: "We are headed towards an IPO as a milestone, but there is no specific timeline as of now."

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The crackdowns and suspensions come at a time when listed chains such as Burger King, McDonald's and KFC operator Devyani International reported a recovery in growth in the April-June quarter, after almost a year of flat or declining sales, riding on value meals and a higher dine-in mix.