Pune eateries struggle to stay open amid LPG shortage

“The situation is grave. The supply of LPG cylinders has been stopped from today because there are no stocks. For the last three days, most dealers and agencies ran on the current stock. But, we’ve been clearly communicated from today that there are no LPG cylinders available, and future supply will depend on availability,” said Saili Jahagirdar, president of the Pune chapter of the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI), on Monday.

Jahagirdar owns Zillinth Bistro and Billion Burgers and a full-fledged catering vertical. The three restaurants in the city need five cylinders a day. On Monday, they did not receive any. “Two of my outlets are on the last cylinder and the third outlet has one extra, which they are expecting to start consuming tomorrow morning and it will go one day,” said Jahagirdar.

She indicated that the sense of emergency was spreading. “I received a call from my bakery vendor, who supplies bakery products to more than 100 restaurants across the city. He said that he could take orders for a couple of days only because he was not getting my stock of cylinders. Whatever cylinders he had were going to run out by the end of tomorrow,” she said.

Shrijith Ravindran of One China reviews operations at his outlet amid a severe commercial LPG shortage in Pune.

Many entrepreneurs in the hospitality business are still recovering from the COVID setbacks. Jahagirdar herself had taken a loan to keep paying her staff, and the rent. “I am still repaying that loan till today. So, we are all emerging out of that crisis and now we have this,” she said.

Aditi Ambavane has been into industrial catering for the past 20 years. She has five kitchens in and around Pune, in locations such as Pashan, Wakad and Ranjangaon. “We are catering to around 5,500 workers in manufacturing units, besides daycare, schools and hospitals,” she said. Her requirement is around 30-35 19 kg cylinders per day. There are 20-25 other caterers in the industrial belt, who have been affected because of the disrupted supply of commercial cylinders. “We tried managing for two or three days with whatever stock we had,” she said.

Ambavane added that they work with small vendors, such as women who make rotis. “We take chapati from the small vendors. We require 10,000-15,000 chapati per day. These household vendors are also saying that there is no cylinder for them. They are having a tough time managing,” she said.

Equally crucially, Ambavane’s workers are not from Maharashtra. They are staying in rooms where they cannot cook or get their tiffin. “The entire Chakan is filled with such migrant labour. They are totally dependent on what the companies give them. We are the backbone of all the manufacturing units actually,” she said.

Shrijith Ravindran from One China has been making multiple calls to vendors supplying LPG cylinders. “They are saying that there is no cylinder available now. They say that they will make it available as soon as possible. We have different vendors, supplying our different outlets and all of them are giving us the same response,” said Ravindran. They are scrambling to run operations with one cylinder and, hopefully, “we will not run out today since it is a Monday”. “If something like that comes on a weekend, it will be very difficult,” he said. They need two to three per week per outlet.

Associations appeal

Ganesh Shetty, president of the Pune Restaurants and Hoteliers Association (PRAHA), said the crisis, if prolonged, could paralyse a sector that hundreds of thousands of people depend on daily. “There are over 10,000 restaurants, snack centres, and mess facilities operating across Pune city,” he said.

“Pune has a large population of students, office-goers, and migrants who rely on these establishments. Lakhs of people are directly or indirectly dependent on this food business. If the supply of commercial cylinders does not improve by the end of this week, some restaurants may have to temporarily suspend operations.”

The supply crunch at the agency level is already stark. Manav Kamble, who runs the Amrapali Gas Agency in Chinchwad, said his stock of 2,000 commercial cylinders has been completely exhausted in the last four days – with no fresh supply arriving. “We have not received a single commercial cylinder in the last four days. Hotels especially are likely to shut down shutters,” he said.

According to NRAI Pune, which has 500 members and generates Rs 5 crore revenue per day, restaurant owners understand the exigencies of a war. “As an association, all we are saying is don’t completely stop the supply of LPG cylinders. Ration it. Cut it down by 50 per cent, not 100 percent. We can’t just stop operations. Imagine the kind of impact that this will have even on Swiggy, Zomato and companies like these?” said Jahagirdar. The Pune chapter of NRAI is the second largest in the country.

Scramble for alternatives

Gurav Duvedi of Vishnu ji Ki Rasoi, too, has been informed by his gas agency that their stock has finished. “We will have to make an alternate arrangement, but what? Can electric induction stoves cater to a restaurant that has a seating of 350? Practically possible hi nahin hai (It is not practical). We need 10-12 gas cylinders every week,” he said. He has enough to last till Friday. “The weekends are the big days for the restaurant industry. We have to see what we can do. It seems like a second COVID has started. We have 25 people working. We have to pay their salaries. If we don;t get cylinders and have to close the restaurant, that’s a different kind of crisis,” he said.

The interior of ‘Vishnu Ji Ki Rasoi’ in Pune. Owner Gurav Duvedi has expressed concern that current commercial LPG shortages could disrupt services for the 350-seater restaurant as they head into the busy weekend.

Already, restaurateurs are trying out options. Ravindran is looking at business continuity planning. If the crisis persists, what would they need to do? “We are exploring other means of cooking. Maybe we can convert to electrical, but this might hamper the taste. We are doing our research to see what we can do,” he said.

Jahagirdar said that her establishments are exploring electric setups. “But, these things take time. It’s not possible to bring a change in infrastructure in a couple of days. It takes a week for an infrastructure change, since there is a requirement for an electric meter, and we need practice to get the dish right,” she said.

Ambavane said that her operations, which means five meals a day, are way too large. “We cannot depend on induction or use electricity for cooking. We don’t know what we are going to do. Maybe, we will talk to the HR managers of all the companies,” she said. Already, her bakery vendor has said that, in the absence of LPG, they cannot make pav, bread or biscuits.

Another caterer adds that some LPG cylinder vendors have started increasing prices. “Generally, we have 30 days’ outstanding credit period with our suppliers. Now, they have told us that to clear all the outstanding because they have to give cash to the companies and only then would they be able to give us cylinders. We have also been asked to pay cash first and only then will we get cylinders. The credit facility is not there. We were getting discounts of around Rs 80 – Rs 100 per cylinder. That has been cancelled for commercial cylinders. The discount is not a priority right now, because we have to keep our business running,” said the caterer, who did not wish to be named. He added that, on Monday, his vendor washed his hands off the issue. “He said that they don’t have any supply,” said the caterer. Another caterer said that some vendors were demanding Rs 2200 to Rs 2400 for a Rs 1900 LPG cylinder.

(Inputs from Shubham Kurale and Manoj More)