After establishing a glorious legacy of around four decades, Monno Ceramics not only made a mark in the people’s hearts but also in their households. Now that it has stretched its new endeavour into a restaurant, one must wonder if it was only organic to come up with the idea since Monno already has its hands on the core ingredient of any eatery, which is tableware!
Fayez Ahmed, Head of Brand, Corporate Sales and Retail Operation at Monno Ceramics, said the plan was to make their products more visible to people through this new venture. Besides, they wanted to give the customers an intimate experience of consuming different dishes in different crockeries designed specifically for those foods.
Interestingly, when Monno planned to construct one of their showrooms in Uttara, Mr Fayez recalled how they came up with the idea of having both a showroom and a tearoom on each floor, which can give the customers a distinct insight into great correlation between their products and their consumption. The intention was to give the buyer a taste of the numerous options for export-quality production that Monno provides.
When Mr Fayez was asked about his contrasting experience of running a restaurant, he talked about the product placement opportunities they got through this. Being one of the largest exporters in this field, they were mostly involved in the export and retail sides of it. Whereas this new endeavour gave them a better cognizance of the kinds of products being preferred more by consumers. Presentation plays a vital role in the restaurant business these days. It won’t look appealing enough if it’s served wrong. Hence, keeping these factors in mind, Monno puts more emphasis on the details while designing their products, such as the placement of the logo and forming the structure in a manner that will complement the dish overall and make it picture-worthy. Mr Fayez also said how ceramics are now adding value to the restaurant business to enhance it and attract more customers in the age of social media. Due to that, they prefer variations in their tableware these days, which pushes the industry to produce more.
From the perspective of giving our local customers the experience of an English tearoom, the theme of “Monno Tea Room” was chosen since there isn’t much place in Dhaka based on this very concept, he added. The interior is inspired by that. They tried to blend their products with the interior by placing the tableware as a piece of décor. Abiding by the theme initially, they included only tea and light snacks on their menu. However, keeping in mind the preferences of local customers, they modified it later on and added a variety of dishes. The price range has also been kept reasonable compared to the ambiance and location to grab the market in their pilot phase. One of their specialties is that people get to taste authentic milk tea, the only breed of tea considered ideal and very close to Bengali hearts. One can sip on their tea at ease in their captivating tea sets while they get to relax in a cosy ambiance.
After spending almost two decades in this field ever since his internship days, Mr Fayez illustrated his journey as more like how the industry chose him instead of the other way around. The amount of scope and diversity this industry offers made him more comfortable continuing to be in it for this long. He cited the example of how, after Covid-19, they saw their peak business period. It was at this time that people started prioritizing crockery and filling their homes with nice utensils and ceramic items due to being in a confined space. Social media, too, played a significant role here in terms of making people take a keen interest in buying the right ceramic tableware.
This restaurant played out as one of Monno’s schemes to make the younger generation familiar with their brand. Using their flagship name as a part of the restaurant’s identity is their systematic approach to leveraging their brand image and being able to get a bigger reach. The place can be considered ideal for meetings, small gatherings, and even party occasions. For now, they gave us a peek into their plan to open more branches in the near future.
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