Rising Competition Sees Eateries Eat Humble Pie
By Ignatius Stephen

Bandar Seri Begawan - Brunei's ‘starving' eateries are ending up hungrier as their piece of the cake gets ever smaller.

The situation is getting so bad that many are rapidly shedding workers and are operating on skeleton staff. This mere ‘lean skin and bones' management approach, is keeping some of them afloat for the time being.

But others are ending up in a hot soup and facing closure. One big reason for this dire outlook is the ever-growing number of restaurants. However, the population has yet to catch up with them resulting in a lopsided supply and demand position.

Many restaurants and cafes are just about breaking even as they increasingly depend on outside catering for weddings and other functions.

But in this too they face fierce competition as many private caterers operating from homes sometimes beat them to it because of low overheads.

A frustrated food and beverage manager of a large hotel said, "It is a mystery why so many people want to get into the depressed restaurant business. Perhaps they anticipate something big which I am not aware of."

Some cafes and restaurants continue to open up at new locations to stem the opposition from getting a foothold.

Others hope the new eating houses will make a profit to cover the loss of the present one. Yet, others do a survey and conclude, many a time falsely, that it is the right location for a new outlet.

The big losers in this game are the foreign chains. The local population is insufficient to keep some of these going as large franchise fees and other expenses are involved. One such chain, Malaysian-based Kyros Kebab at The Mall, closed recently because of poor business.

"The cake remains the same size more or less. If there is a significant influx of workers and tourists there would be some hope.

"As it is the economy remains stagnant and I do not see much future in the local restaurant industry at the moment," a hotel manager said.

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