by Vijaylakshmi
The Empire restaurant brand has been around for nearly 60 years and currently run by the third generation. Sourcecaught up with Shakir Haq, CEO of NKP Empire, the company which owns and operates the ‘empire’.
The genesis of the business began with Haq’s grandfather Abdul Rahim Haji, who was born in Thrikaripur, a small town in Kerala’s Kasaragod district. From early childhood Haji moved around the globe and while working under his uncle as an entrepreneur, was bitten by the F&B bug. He began opening cafes with the ultimate aim of opening a restaurant in a metro—which he did in Bengaluru (then called Bangalore) in 1966 while still shuttling between Malaysia and the city, Haq recalled.
“The second generation came in with Bangalore growing and expanding. I think we played a very important role as a part of comfort and convenience, where we were open late into the night, offering pocket friendly meals,” Haq felt.
With the entry of the third generation—his own, Haq stated that the brand had grown and evolved. It had developed standard operating practices and (corporate) governance.
“I think, with the advent of technology, we’ve brought in what was required. I would say that the last five-and-a-half years has seen the third generation actively involved and also managing and operating the business,” he said.
Haq himself took over as CEO of the company after his father, Abdul Haq, who was chairman and managing director, NKP Empire had passed, in 2018.
“I think we’ve brought in a lot of changes from people management to culture to process to governance to the value systems. On the whole, bringing back the whole essence of the true Empire that existed back in the 80s and 90s.
“Somewhere, I think we did lose our way when we were doing things in the name of growth. Yes, great things happened, but we did lose valuable customers and business at one point, but it was a struggle again to come back, and Covid played a very crucial role in helping us turning around the whole organisation into something we always dreamt of,” he said adding that he felt they were on that journey.
The Empire dynasty: Seated (L to R) Abdul Azeez, managing director - NKP Empire and KPC Mohamed Kunhi, chairman - NKP Empire; Standing (L to R) Mohamed Zahrin, director on board/vertical head, Empire Juice; Shahid Haq, joint managing director - NKP Empire; Masoud Mohamed, director on board/vertical head - EasyBites; and Shakir Haq, CEO - NKP Empire." />In 2018 when Haq and the third generation took over the group had 26 restaurants. Now that number stands at 45—though many of these are multi-brand outlets, he said.
Speaking about taking over a multi-generational family business and the difficulties that went with it, Haq said, “”We still have people who have been in the system for the last 42 years or so—and when they walk in, we naturally stand up because of our upbringing, culture and tradition—bringing them on board and aligning them to the future of Empire and what its going to be like was a challenge. But one thing I always understood was, we are in the people business and not in the food business, because everything that you do in our business is with people—every stakeholder is a person.”
The group employs 3,748 people, and is looking at a turnover close to INR 600 crore for FY 24-25, Haq stated.
“We will not restrict ourselves just to be a restaurant brand. We want to be a global food company known for its expertise in the F&B sector. We will continue to grow our restaurant brands wherever markets openly welcome us, and we are also looking to create more sub-brands within the umbrella, as well as get into the retail merchandise aspects since we have a story to tell,” he said adding that this aspect of the business would probably hit the market in the next year or two. They were also looking at growing into supporting business verticals which would help them become more self-sufficient.
“We are very focused on building our backend capabilities, having better integrations, from better ERP systems to manufacturing enterprise solutions to the best of point of sales, and having internal controls,” he said.
“I think 70 percent of the global economy is driven by family businesses, and they are public limited companies. Somewhere down the line, we are aspiring to be a public limited company. Today, whatever we are doing internally is being done on par with a private limited company in terms of our practices and governance,” Haq added about the future.
