Aminia's fourth-generation owner, Kabir Md Azhar, wants to carry forward the legacy with new ideas 

Fourth-generation Aminia owner Kabir Md Azhar is set to carry the legacy of the brand forward with a fresh approach
Kabir Md Azhar
Kabir Md Azhar

Aminia, the biryani giant that has been a trailblazer in the Mughlai cuisine segment, building loyal customers over generations in the city, is on the threshold of change. The rich legacy of the biryani house is now going to be carried forward by the fourth generation scion, Kabir Md Azhar, who took over the operations during one of the toughest times in the history of the nonagenarian food chain. Kabir built new strategies and made sure their loyalists didn’t miss a plateful of the flavourful and aromatic Mughlai dishes even during the pandemic. Bursting with ideas, the 21-year-old enthusiastic fellow talks about braving the pandemic and reinventing the brand while keeping the legacy intact. Excerpts:

What were the strategies adopted by Aminia to keep the brand’s legacy and revenue intact during the lockdown?

Pandemic was an eye-opening experience for us. We had our social media presence but it was grossly underutilised. So, we shifted to aggressive mode with our online strategies. Dine-in and parcel sales are the major sources of our revenues and since that took a beating, we had to device new strategies to brave the dull period. To reassure our patrons we made a video, that was shot at our Chinar Park outlet, highlighting the safety measures adopted by us. Also, our delivery partners Swiggy and Zomato gave us the ‘Best in Safety’ tag, which we had earned by following WHO’s 23 guidelines. These new measures helped us bounce back.

How challenging is it for you to shoulder the responsibility of a heritage brand in the face of the changing palate of the gastronomes?

Aminia has been able to sustain its brand value for over 90 years because of two interconnected things — age-old recipes and loyal customers. While on one hand, we have customers, who are attached to the brand for its nostalgia value, the newer generation expects more and hence we have been introducing new items in the menu form time to time.

We are a heritage brand and we are constantly adapting to the changing times. What’s the way ahead?

We have already started cloud kitchens — one in Salt Lake and the other on EM Bypass Road and this helped us reach out to these otherwise untapped areas. We have plans to expand in North Bengal as we have received an incredible response from our Barrackpore, Shreerampur and Sodepur outlets. There are plans to open in Siliguri and also branch out of Bengal into other parts of the country

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