Story of Burger Bun

Khaled Mahmud Palash & Sohail Islam Shaon

Dhaka: More or less everyone drools over a meaty moist burger juiced with cheese. A burger consists of a lot of yummy ingredients but the hero of a burger is the bun itself. 

In recent couple of years, Burger has become one of the very popular fast food items in the city of Dhaka. It is estimated that an average of up to 100-150 burgers are sold in each restaurants and food courts in the city. This simple statistic proves that how promising the sale of burger buns can be in our food industry. The entire restaurant chains all over the world prefers different types of burger in their food chart and work hard to make their burgers stand out. This leads to a vast possibility of business opportunity in the baking industry.

Nowadays fast food business arrives very competitive in Bangladesh, particularly in Dhaka city. Thousands of restaurant race between each other. Burger buns play a huge role for this because continuously customers are interested in new burger arrangements and forces restaurants to take chances with their menu.

‘King’s Confectionery’ and ‘Coopers Bakery’ are two of the biggest and most popular burger bun sellers in Bangladesh.  They distribute their product around the restaurants all over the country. Upon interviewing, Mahmudur Rahman, a salesman from the ‘Coopers Bakery’, said “the sales of burger buns have increased over the last few years and so we had to increase the price for that.” This falls under the basic law of economics which says, an increase in demand will increase the price of the product.

Burger   Photo: Palash

According to Sakib Rahman, manager of KFC restaurant, “we buy our burger buns from Coopers Bakery.  We take 300 to 400 buns per day. Previously, per day average of burger buns sale was 250 pieces but now because of the customer interest it has increased up to 350 to 400. The purchase price of burger buns is now 5% less due to the competition of market.’’

Most of the restaurant managers agree with the fact that the demand of burger buns is flourishing. “Our average customer per day 300 plus and 50% people order burger in their first choice.  Our customers come mostly in two slots: first slot- (2:00 pm to 4pm) mostly students come at this time, and another slot (after 5 pm), jobholders and family goers. Most of them like whopper burgers (35%) which is around (275 to 420) taka and chicken flavoured burger which ranges from (220 to 325) taka. Our customers do not need to pay vat. Our food delivery service order have increased triple compared to before.’’, said Nasib Ahmed, marketing manager, BURGER N BOOST.

The relationship between fast food culture and teenagers is related with each other. Today, young generation is crazy about food.  Fast food culture interacts with teen’s lives. They hang out with friends, love gossipping, and organise party inside the restaurant. So, that’s why our restaurant business run based on the young people mind set. They structure their whole food item or inner arrangement fulfil the demand.

Shohag Kabir, a student said that “I am a food lover person. I spend around 300 taka daily only for fast food items. Burgers are also included in my list. I love chicken flavor burger most. Per week I spent average 1500 to 2000 taka eating fast food.’’ 

Niloy, Sarmeen, Meherul, Mamun a group of friends said that, “after complete our class all we are sitting in a restaurant for relax. The environment of restaurant is suitable for us, without hesitation we can gossip hour and hour. When we remain together most of the time we order burger or pizza. Burger like grill chicken burger or cheese burger buns.”

There are different types of burger buns in market and their average Price is whooper (275 taka), double whooper ( 350 taka), grill chicken burger ( 220 taka), BnB Mac ( 350 taka), Cheese burger ( 150 taka), Angry burger ( 325 taka), Veggie burger ( 175 taka), Triple whooper cheese ( 475 taka), Teriyaki chicken burger ( 325 taka), Triple cheese burger ( 300 taka), Double jr whooper cheese ( 300 taka), Spicy grill chicken burger ( 250 taka), Crispy tender chicken (220 taka), Smokey BBQ burger ( 400taka).

“At the end of the working day in my office sometimes I go to restaurant with my colleague. And also come with my family. My favourite type of burger buns is double whooper burger. My wife also made burger buns in home’’.  Said Mr. Mukul Sarkar, Employee. 

The people of Bangladesh are huge food enthusiasts and the fast food industry in the country is now thriving. Burger is one of the main sources of fast food nowadays and have a very promising business opportunity in the country. There needs to be more bakeries producing quality burger buns to make burgers more available to its lovers. This can also create business opportunities for many SME investors and entrepreneurs, thus playing a vital role in the country’s economy

Sub Editor: Palash