Kunal Udane : Riding on punekar’s taste

German Bakery is managed under the dynamic leadership of KunalUdane. A serial entrepreneur himself kunal and his team have been instrumental in transforming German Bakery offerings and taking it to a new heights.Hard work, dedication and passion will take you places. This statement is in every sense apt to define the life of KunalUdane the owner of the famous "German Bakery." His grandfather and father laid the foundation of the journey of Restaurant business and till date there was no looking back. An MBA in marketing, Kunal never shied away from challenges. In 2010 when the famous German Bakery was destroyed in a bomb blast, nobody thought it would come back to normal. Udane family took over and revived it in 2013. Currently kunal and his team is managing all the restaurants and planning of expansion for Pan India in the next five years.

How did you decide on coming up with the German Bekaryproject ?
In the year 2010 after the bomb blast , the German bakery was completely devastated and the owners had a rough time establishing this game again due to licensing and renovation work cost . He was not getting help in terms of competition satuon from the government and was difficult to start the brand again. This was the opportunity as well as task for uswhen we took over the brand. Task as to restrain in again and get its charm back to the patrons and also as a Indian citizen we took the national responsibility,we took over the challenge to start the place.We took over German Bakery at that point of time as my family is in hospitality business for past 34 years. It took us three whole years for the planning and licensing and designing of the place and menu and finally we opened the place in 2013.

How long have you working in this sector?
I was in business since my college days. Have completed my BBA from MIT collage and MBA marketing, but for me restaurants was my passion ever since I started noticing things and this made me join family business since my graduation days. as I used to spend time at the restaurant working and educating myself in this field. That time I used to manage work as well as studies.
My Grandfather and Father started our first restaurant Shreeman in 1983, and that was like seed to our business. Ever since past 38 years we have evolved from an individual restaurant and bar to a group of restaurants. Currently our Group ownsShreeman in Kothrud ,German Bakery at koregaon park ,German Bakery at Law College ,German Bakery at Lonavala ,Hotel Kaminiat Chinchwad, Iddos our south indian cuisine chain restaurant atKothrud, Iddos at Pimple Saudagar,underIddos BannerPERSEPOLIS at Kalyaninagar

According to you what are the major challenges one has to face in this Hotel industry?
The restaurant industry looks lucrative but as it's said the grass is always greener on the other side . we have to face a lot of challenges right from managing and traning of human resource to keep checks on all the stocks and then finally to see to it that the quality never gets hampered in any of the restaurantsas food is prepared by people and there is always a risk of human error .But the most important challenge if you ask me is retaining clients and giving them the best service.As in food industry word of mouth is the best means of advertising rather than using print media.

In the last few years taste buds of Punekar's have undergone a change?
Yes surely we can say that in the last decade the food preferences of pune has changed and they have majorly gone towards continental food rather than having a traditional indian main course and that also specially when they are dining outside .It is now a days seen that people will usually start their course with a Oriental starter or a salad and mostly end it with a nice desert rather than a traditional ice cream .

As a young entrepreneur what are your future plans ?
we at German Bakery are honored to have clients from across India who visit Pune .people who come to Pune surely do come to German Bekary and dine as well as take our bakery products to their home town .Hence our team had decided to give the world famous German Bekary menu at the doorsteps of all our patrons all over India and hence we started the expansion of German Bekary in 2018 and our first target is to setup in more and more cities in India. We are also getting offers for franchise from across the world and thetalks are on for Muscat and Dubai . Now in futurewe wanted to do something different, so planned for a Morrocan café and bar outlet which converts to a lounge in Eve in Kalyaninagar by the name of 'Persepolis'.