His Chai enthralled the taste buds of Hyderabadis

A Babu Rao, the owner of Niloufer Café, which has set marvelous benchmarks in the café segment in Telangana, shared his experience and future plans of his popular café talking to The Hans India. Babu Rao said that they have prepared a project report for expansion and also got six acres of land at Chandanvelly near Shamshabad. Babu Rao said that presently it was in an initial planning state and added it would be a big unit, which can provide employment to about 200 people. "We have several plans like having our own Tea powder, Osmania biscuits and other things which I cannot disclose now," said Babu Rao.

The journey of Babu Rao, a native of Laggaon Village in Sirpur Kagaznagar in Adilabad started in 1975. Babu Rao said that when he was in tenth class, he had no money to buy books. He learnt from his neighbours that his father had sold his cow for Rs 125 and gave it to him for studying. Babu Rao was upset as his family had to do this for his studies and decided to move to another city to earn livelihood. "My father told me 'whenever you have money, help the poor'," said the proud café owner.

Babu Rao came to Hyderabad and started working in cloth stores and slept on footpaths. "Someone suggested that I work in a hotel as there will be no issue with shelter and food and I can have total money saved. I started working in Niloufer doing all sorts of work right from sweeping, making tea, sitting on the counter etc," said Babu Rao. He said that the owners wanted to end the contract and they gifted him the café in 1981. He also recalled the relations he had with the management of Nimra hotel near Charminar monument, which helped him in running the café, which presently provides employment to 350 people.

From humble beginning in 1981, Babu Rao now owns three outlets in the city catering to different audiences. During 2016, he started his second and a swanky looking outlet at the Lakdikapul especially for the new generation with a higher price as suggested by his son. Recently, in 2019, he again started another high-class restaurant at Banjara Hills with an investment of Rs 2 Crore to Rs 3 Crore. "I had decided to price the tea at Rs 100 per cup because of the high rent and attractive interiors and this will cater to the high class people," said Babu Rao. He said that another posh outlet would be opened at Himayatnagar as most of the visitors from these areas were coming to Banjara Hills.

When asked what is so special about Niloufer that people are addicted to the Chai, Babu Rao said, "I use quality products in everything. There are certain systems in our cafe like having a quality Maida, milk and our own mixed blend of tea powder. We never compromise on the quality and this is the reason I believe people come again to our café. Apart from this, we never use the same product and also oil for the second day. The funda is that I should like the taste before I offer it to others," said Babu Rao. He said they were against giving franchises as people tend to compromise with quality after a certain time.

In his message to the new enthusiasts coming into business, Rao said that any business would have losses initially. "I too faced losses for more than a year but I continued to provide quality products. I made them habituated and now they are coming without caring about the price," said Rao.

The welfare of the workers of Niloufer Café is also well taken care of by the management as they are provided breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and salary is additional. "I know what poverty is because I experienced it in my early days. We take boys from Yashoda foundation, who train rescued and rehabilitated kids who have completed Intermediate," said Rao.

Not only is he an entrepreneur but also a philanthropist who serves food to 300 people every day at the Niloufer Hospital. "People come from faraway places and stay here for months to get treatment and often find it difficult to have food and this made me to start feeding. Many had joined me in my efforts to provide food to the needy and today, the place is known for donating food as at regular intervals many people come and distribute food," said Rao.