C.Y. Aasife
Founder of Aasife Biriyani
Aasife Biriyani, based out of Chennai, was started in 1999 on a small pushcart by C.Y. Aasife due to financial difficulties at home. It has been a long journey of growth from selling ten kilograms of biryani to owning 33 restaurant outlets now. C.Y. Aasife, Founder & MD at Aasife Biriyani, claims that it is only through sheer hard work and uncompromising attitude towards the quality and service, that Aasife Biriyani has gone from rags to riches and become Chennai's most popular biryani restaurant.
In an exclusive interview with CEO Insights magazine, B.K. Thirupathiraja, who is a close friend of Aasife gives a detailed insight about Aasife Biriyani's journey and tells us about his friend's roles and future roapmap for Aasife Biryani.
Tell us how Aasife Biriyani was started. Describe its brand persona and what it represents.
Aasife Biriyani started in 1999, with the blessings of our beloved mother on a small pushcart by Aasife in T Nagar. We had over hundred customers per day and they would give us compliments about the taste. As the popularity increased and more people flocked to our pushcart, we decide to open up a restaurant at Butt Road near St. Thomas Mount and within 9-10 years we had expanded our business to 20-25 outlets in Tamil Nadu. Our aspiration has always
been to achieve taste without any compromise. We have never compromised on quality irrespective of the prices of the ingredients. With consistency and hard-work we have managed to set up around 30 outlets in Tamil Nadu, three in Kerala and one in Andhra Pradesh. Our tagline is 'world's best biriyani' because we wish to take it to the entire world.
As the manager how do you ensure the customers are satisfied? What are your marketing strategies and marketing mediums?
Customer satisfaction is our utmost priority. For this, we ensure that the taste is maintained. We want our customers to be happy and satisfied and hope that a spoonful of biryani brings a smile to their faces. If customer is happy, they will come to us again and again and also promote us through word of mouth. Building trust in the market is essential since competition is tough and we want to make sure that the customers know, they can rely on us for taste and satisfaction. Other aspects are hygiene and cleaning, which also became the most essential aspect during COVID-19 times.
In this fast-changing world, technology plays a big role and we have to stay up to date. We use Zomato and Swiggy for marketing and have our IT team in place to review the feedbacks we receive, to ensure quality check.
How do you divide your time between all the outlets of Aasife Biriyani to ensure proper functioning?
It's actually challenging for him to supervise and assess the work of all our outlets but he is lucky to have a very supportive family and team. We rely on technology as well to be able to operate efficiently. We have our own IT team who review the customer feedback on Goggle, and other apps and also have weekly
Aasife Biriyani wants to provide biryani that not only delights taste buds but also soothes the heart and replenishes the soul
As the manager how do you ensure the customers are satisfied? What are your marketing strategies and marketing mediums?
Customer satisfaction is our utmost priority. For this, we ensure that the taste is maintained. We want our customers to be happy and satisfied and hope that a spoonful of biryani brings a smile to their faces. If customer is happy, they will come to us again and again and also promote us through word of mouth. Building trust in the market is essential since competition is tough and we want to make sure that the customers know, they can rely on us for taste and satisfaction. Other aspects are hygiene and cleaning, which also became the most essential aspect during COVID-19 times.
In this fast-changing world, technology plays a big role and we have to stay up to date. We use Zomato and Swiggy for marketing and have our IT team in place to review the feedbacks we receive, to ensure quality check.
How do you divide your time between all the outlets of Aasife Biriyani to ensure proper functioning?
It's actually challenging for him to supervise and assess the work of all our outlets but he is lucky to have a very supportive family and team. We rely on technology as well to be able to operate efficiently. We have our own IT team who review the customer feedback on Goggle, and other apps and also have weekly
visits and monthly visits planned to attain smooth running of all the outlets. There are certain guidelines in place as well, like pest control, daily and monthly cleaning, staff's and chef's vaccination and more. and we also provide 15 days of training to the staff at new franchise. Successful Franchisors create an effective Business Plan and Build a strong Brand.
What Future plans have you envisioned for Aasife Biriyani?
We opened 10 outlets in 2022, post pandemic and plan to explore the opportunity the national capital Delhi and Karnataka have to offer. We want to expand our business all over the country in the future, as well. The future plan also involves taking Aasife Biriyani to the world and making it as famous as KFC or Mcdonalds. We want to able to do this without any quality deterioration and compromise in taste. Maintaining the authenticity would be a challenge but with dedication anything is possible. We want the world to know about our brand and resonate with our tagline ‘world’s best biriyani’.
What Advice Do You Have For The Future Budding Entrepreneur?
Hardwork is very essential. You can achieve anything with dedication and hardwork. If you want something in life and are good at it, remain focused and focus on only one thing at a time instead of ten things. So, if you are good at studies, study hard and if you are good at some other stuff, focus on that. There is no shortcut to success but hard work.
C.Y. Aasife, Founder, Aasife Biriyani
Aasife Biriyani, was started in 1999 in Chennai. Since then, it has seen immense success and gone from being a small pushcart to having 33 outlets. The Founder , Managing Director at Aasife Biriyani, Aasife aims to set up outlets all across the nation and the world and people to know that Aasife Biriyani is the ‘World’s Best Biriyani’.
What Future plans have you envisioned for Aasife Biriyani?
We opened 10 outlets in 2022, post pandemic and plan to explore the opportunity the national capital Delhi and Karnataka have to offer. We want to expand our business all over the country in the future, as well. The future plan also involves taking Aasife Biriyani to the world and making it as famous as KFC or Mcdonalds. We want to able to do this without any quality deterioration and compromise in taste. Maintaining the authenticity would be a challenge but with dedication anything is possible. We want the world to know about our brand and resonate with our tagline ‘world’s best biriyani’.
What Advice Do You Have For The Future Budding Entrepreneur?
Hardwork is very essential. You can achieve anything with dedication and hardwork. If you want something in life and are good at it, remain focused and focus on only one thing at a time instead of ten things. So, if you are good at studies, study hard and if you are good at some other stuff, focus on that. There is no shortcut to success but hard work.
C.Y. Aasife, Founder, Aasife Biriyani
Aasife Biriyani, was started in 1999 in Chennai. Since then, it has seen immense success and gone from being a small pushcart to having 33 outlets. The Founder , Managing Director at Aasife Biriyani, Aasife aims to set up outlets all across the nation and the world and people to know that Aasife Biriyani is the ‘World’s Best Biriyani’.