After 10th birthday celebration, this iconic French bakery is hungering for pan-India expansion
Delhi-NCR’s popular French bakery L’Opera, which is known for its authentic flavours and unique fare, is planning to expand across India after completing a decade in the capital.
Delhi-NCR's iconic French bakery chain L’Opéra is, quite simply, foodie heaven. The delectable aroma of French goodies in the warmth of a cosy ambience simply can’t be ignored.
When it first opened its doors in the heart of India’s capital in March 2011, no one could have envisioned the swift rise of the brand. In a decade, L’Opéra has expanded to include over two dozen outlets in strategic markets of Delhi and Gurugram, all major malls in the NCR region, and prestigious office buildings.
L’Opéra is the brainchild of Frenchman Laurent Samandari, who realised the demand for authentic, high-quality French bakery and pastry products while on an internship in India. Later, Laurent’s parents, Kazem and Christine Samandari, and several other family members joined him. The family is actively involved in running the business to this day.
“It has been a fantastic journey so far for my son Laurent, who initiated the project, and my wife and I, who joined him in the early days of his endeavours, as rather courageous early family investors believing in him and his vision,” says Executive Chairman Kazem Samandari.
How it all began
Despite tremendous global exposure in the first decade of the 21st century, the capital of India did not have a single authentic French patisserie and bakery brand. This made the Samandaris hopeful of the potential success of their idea. But they were aware that it would not be easy.
They began the business with an initial investment of roughly Rs 5 crore, and over the years increased it to an amount exceeding Rs 60 crore. A far-sighted business plan comprising several phases that required additional investments at each milestone sustained them.
L’Opéra is the brainchild of Frenchman Laurent Samandari, who realised the demand for authentic, high-quality French bakery and pastry products. His parents, Kazem and Christine Samandari, also joined the business.
“We never aimed at rapid breakeven but the creation and development of a brand destined to last for generations. To this end, we have never compromised on quality and excellence. Considerable investments have been directed towards training hundreds of staff members over a decade and creating the basis for a pan-India operation. Taking this into account, we achieved our initial breakeven in roughly seven years before engaging in new rounds of investments to enlarge the scope and reach of the enterprise,” Kazem says.
The brand’s sustained success can be ascribed to its 10 core values: commitment to excellence and quality; truthfulness, honesty and transparency; gender equality; meritocracy and equal opportunity; courtesy; collaboration and mutual respect; consultation; ownership and accountability; spirit of service; and responsible and sustainable growth.
The legacy of the brand
Over the years, L’Opéra has stayed consistent with its products, quality of service, and commitment to innovation, attracting a number of awards for the best bakery and pastry operation in Delhi and Gurugram.
L’Opéra has familiarised residents of the capital with various concepts of French culinary hospitality. This includes bakery and pastry products sold in its Boulangerie-Patisserie, as well as the offerings of its Salon de Thé or Tea Room and Café Restaurant formats.
The brand’s legacy is built on their popular sweet treats like the melt-in-your-mouth almond croissants, well-balanced macarons, creamy chocolate Pastries, and irresistible lemon tarts.
L’Opéra has remained loyal to its ‘Frenchness’ whilst offering products, including the popular rose macarons, that appeal to the Indian palate.
Kazem says, “We have remained absolutely loyal to our ‘Frenchness’ whilst offering products that appeal to the Indian palate. For instance, we offer a rose water macaron or more chocolate-based pastries that are appreciated by local customers. We have noticed that Indian customers, who represent over 85 percent of our clientele, are as keen as their foreign counterparts to enjoy high quality authentic French products. Obviously, we are not referring to the ‘masses’, but the segment of society that can be categorised as potential L’Opéra customers.”
Continuing to marry French flavour with local expectations, the team recently introduced a Savoury section, which has been received well. The menu includes classics like the croque monsieurs, vol-au-vents, onion and goat cheese tarts, savoury mille feuilles, French onion soup, and other delicacies.
Challenges of the pandemic
As with any business, L’Opéra’s journey has not always been smooth. The pandemic, and particularly the first lockdown, were quite difficult on the team. Apart from implementing stringent hygiene protocols and introducing cumbersome additional measures such as the individual packaging of all pastry products, there was also an issue of cash flow.
“During the first few weeks of lockdown, we had zero revenues with all activities halted. We restarted by producing only breads for online sale and through home delivery. A few months later we opened our outlets for takeaway only and then allowed limited dine-in and so forth.
"Managing our cost by right-sizing the staff, renegotiating rental agreements to the extent possible, and securing the regular flow of raw materials were some of the other issues we had to face over this period,” Kazem says. However, they managed to overcome them all.
Since its inception, L’Opéra has trained over 600 individuals in different disciplines. Pre-COVID, they had a total of roughly 250 employees on their team. During the first lockdown, this number dropped to approximately 90, but now L’Opéra has exceeded its pre-COVID revenues with about 160 collaborators.
“We replaced low return, labour intensive offerings with higher value-added ones – and introduced rationalisation measures which allowed us to realise significant productivity gains whilst simultaneously improving the quality of our products and services and our overall performance,” explains Kazem.
L’Opéra's focus on its products and quality of service has won it numerous loyal customers.
A decade on
The 10-year celebration of L’Opéra began in March and is slated to continue till September 2021. This includes special engagements with customers in person and through social media; limited edition anniversary products, offers, and gifts to mark the opening dates of outlets; the release of videos and presentations tracing the history of the company; a special eggless menu to acknowledge the commitment of L’Opéra to its local clientele; a culinary festival entitled the ‘Flavours of France’; distinctive anniversary packaging; the launch of special memorabilia; and more.
The pandemic halted L’Opéra’s ambitious expansion plans for the period 2020-2025. These included opening more outlets in Delhi-NCR and branches in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, and several other Tier I cities. Once the second wave abated, the team felt comfortable and revisited its plans of expansion.
The first post-COVID outlet was opened in July end in Gurugram’s Galleria Market. “We are confident that our qualified and experienced management team is capable of scaling up and duplicating our Delhi operations in other geographies as well,” says Kazem talking about the imminent future.
As the leader in this segment, L’Opéra has paved the way for over a dozen companies and brands to follow its lead over the past 10 years, while continuing to hold sway.
Edited by Teja Lele
