Delhi is a market of at least a 100 stores: Jumboking

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In November 2021, Jumboking, India’s favourite brand of vegetarian burgers, opened its doors to serve the bustling metropolis of Delhi, at the Kashmere Gate Metro station. As of April 2022, eight more stores are under construction in the vast network of metro stations in the Delhi-NCR region. city. Delhi will now be dotted by the iconic ‘JK-BITE’, a short form logo introduced by the company in 2017, recognisable from a mile away. The signage is akin to the golden arches developed by McDonalds in 1968, as a way to instantly build familiarity with its patrons.

“Delhi is blessed with a high density of young population and a vibrant food culture, just like Mumbai” shares Dheeraj Gupta, Founder and MD, Jumboking Foods. “For us, it is a market of upwards of 100 stores. In both cities, we serve the ‘On The Go’ population with conveniently located stores across metros, trains, bus stations and airports.

One of the most vocal advocates of franchising in the country, Gupta has played a key role in the large-scale acceptance of franchising as a framework for business in the QSR industry. Gupta believes and advocates that franchising is a business model which magnifies the principle of ‘together we achieve more’. The key lies in being selective about on-boarding operator-franchisees, being uncompromising about the real estate and then being relentless about delivering a world class experience to today’s consumers who are spoilt for choice. To put it simply, franchising is a ‘win-win-win’ business model where the first win is for the consumers, the 2nd win is for the entrepreneur franchisees and the 3rd win is for the entire manufacturing, distribution eco-system set up by the parent company.

Gupta incepted Jumboking back in August 2001. Today, as one of India’s largest homegrown QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) brands, Jumboking has an aspirational, youth-centric focus that celebrates individuality, enterprise and achievement. The entire product range- lip smacking flavors of premium vegetarian burgers such as Spicy Mexican, Nachos, Hara Bhara Kabab, Mac & Cheese, Crispy Veg, Big Crunch and Corn Palak, along with fries (cheese and peri peri), thick shakes, coke and softy is available in Delhi as well.

The brand amplifies its reach through its delivery partnerships with Swiggy and Zomato, which are particularly important during mega- events like IPL. The other reason for ordering in, is that India’s corporates are still balancing WFH and physical attendance. “The win-win equation between digital platforms and QSRs is yet to be explored fully in India. The demand for delivery is driven by a ‘consumer need’- that of convenience. Hence, it is based on ‘pull’ not push. Ordering online has picked up tremendously in markets like Mumbai and Pune and my sense is that Delhiites will demand this convenience too,” adds Gupta.

As a brand, we understand the inherent strength of Bharat better

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The first edition of Pride of India Brands: The Best of Bharat Conference & Awards witnessed a panel of successful entrepreneurs who shared their valuable insights on ‘Secrets of Building Successful Brands for Bharat’.

The panelists comprised Kailash Katkar, MD, QuickHeal Technologies; Namrata Chotrani, CEO, Khadim; Dr Sriram Iyer, CRO, Metropolis Healthcare; Dheeraj Gupta, Founder & MD, Jumboking; and Rahul Tewari, CFO, Games24x7. The session was moderated by Jai Lala, CEO, Zenith Media.

The entrepreneurs kicked off the session with a discussion on how they look at Bharat as a market. Chotrani said, “When we look at Bharat, I think we take a step back and divide India into two segments, the first segment being those who stay in urban markets, have a higher disposable income, and shop from high streets and malls. The second segment is the people who stay in tier 2 and tier 3 markets, in the rural markets. They shop from small exclusive brand outlets, small retail counters, and multi-brand retailers. They have exposure to television and they are also demanding fashion today. We call this market Bharat, which is the future of India. That’s how we have categorised Bharat and India and that’s how we have positioned our business catering to both these markets.”

Sharing his views on the same, Gupta shared, “The Indian business environment especially the Bharat environment, requires a business model where the returns commensurate with the potential of the market. As a brand, we understand the inherent strength of Bharat better.”

Talking about how digital impacts a business and comparing offline media with digital media Gupta further said, “Digital is a reality which we have embraced openly. It opens up a whole new world where business can grow. For us in the food industry, we are very fortunate that we have Swiggy and Zomato who have come up and spent crores of money in creating this entire ecosystem around home delivery and it was an entire segment of business that we used to miss out on and now it is possible because these players are there.”

Katkar explained how tech brands tackle Bharat digitally, compared to other industries. “When it comes to tech brand, digital is the most important aspect of it and with QuickHeal, we actually started our e-commerce as well as communication through digital in year 1998. So at that time, in India, there was not a single payment getaway from any bank. So I had a tie-up with an American company and they were able to give services to Indian customers as well. Gradually ICICI Bank and others came into existence. So when it comes to e-commerce as well as the communication part, the time has started changing. Both digital and offline medium are equally important to us. I believe that at the shop level, digital has gone quite upwards,” he said.

Sharing his thoughts on the importance of e-commerce for Bharat, Tewari said, “Today, the Indian consumer is bombarded with all kinds of global games, making the country one of the hottest gaming markets. So Indians downloaded more games last year than the US and Chinese markets. To be able to penetrate that market, we had to come up with the sachet strategy. You have limited time, limited money to entertain yourself.” He further stated that what Bharat is doing today, the world will do tomorrow as the mass market in Bharat is huge. “It is young and culturally the deepest that one can see in the whole world. So their power to change the narrative for entertainment is very formidable,” he added.

5 Made-in-India burger brands giving tough competition to McDonald’s, Burger King

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The last decade has seen numerous domestic players in the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) and QSR (quick-service restaurant) space coming up with innovative brands that are at par with the international ones.

From McDonald’s to Burger King, international brands, in the last two decades, brought a new trend of eating burgers in cafes or in a setup that eventually came to be known as quick-service restaurants (QSR). These brands have dominated the Indian fast food segment for years.

Today, neighbourhoods across India have several Indian brands making a splash in the fast-food market. Apart from burgers, India has also given birth to the domestic rival of Dunkin Donuts in the form of Mad Over Donuts.

SMBStory lists five burger brands competing with international peers.

Burger Singh

It was difficult for Kabir Jeet Singh to make ends meet when he was pursuing his MBA at the Birmingham Business School in 2007. And, what does a desi do in pardes to meet his needs? After his classes in the morning, he worked at a burger outlet on the night shift.

At the end of the evening shift, he got a free burger to feed himself. But being from the land of masalas, Kabir soon grew tired of eating the bland burgers and one day decided to give the burger an Indian spicy twist.

“I went to a nearby store and purchased some Shan masalas and tried mixing them in the patty. And to my surprise, it tasted awesome. From then onwards, I made it a habit and gradually started offering that Indo-British fusioned burger to my friends there,” says Kabir.

Soon, the owner of the burger outlet got wind of the popularity of Kabir’s fusion burger and listed it on the menu, giving Kabir an artiste fee for the recipe. The love for Indian food among the English is legendary and they could not have enough of Kabir’s burger. He soon earned the moniker ‘Burger Singh’, and the rest, as they say, is history.

In 2014, he opened the first outlet of Burger Singh and today its presence has grown to 55 outlets in 20 cities. The brand is also planning to tap into seven new cities with 20 outlets already in progress.

Biggies Burger

Founded by Biraja Prasad Rout in 2011 as a weekend hobby, Biggies Burger started with a small kiosk in Bengaluru’s Electronic City, near the Infosys office.

Biraja says the trend of fast-food chains interested him while he was working at HCL Limited. The lack of local brands compelled him to push this opportunity further.

Today, Biggies Burger has a presence across 71 outlets (47 functioning and 24 under-progress) in 25 cities, except in North India. The founder highlights that Biggies Burger functions as a franchisee model, sans one company-owned outlet in Bengaluru.

This year, Biggies has big plans to expand domestically and internationally. Apart from foraying into Singapore, the brand plans to open 306 outlets by 2024, with the current run-rate of five franchises a month.

The Burger Company

Neelam Singh was always a foodie by heart. It was her love for food that eventually led her to become an entrepreneur.

After working with Genpact and ICICI Lombard, she quit her job in 2017 to start her own food business. She says she wanted to target another gap in the market by opening a fast-food chain for youngsters specifically, preferably college and school students residing in Tier II and III cities.

“I grew up in Agra, and there were not many places in those times where we could hang around,” she says.

Today, fast-food chains across the country have considerably grown, and Neelam hopes to carve a niche in this very market.

To set the ball rolling, Neelam started a B2B business. “We took a small shop in the food court in one of the corporates, converted it into a kitchen, and supplied to corporates like Sapient (in Gurgaon). We offered mainly burgers and beverages.” Seeing the burgers getting a good response, Neelam felt encouraged to take this a step further to start her own fast-food business called The Burger Company. In 2018, she opened an outlet in Palam Vihar, Gurugram.

Since the pandemic, the brand has scaled up to 42 franchisees and one outlet of its own. Following her dreams, Neelam has also been able to expand to Tier II and Tier III cities like Baraut, Loni, Roorkee, Bhiwani, Rohtak, Ujjain, Aligarh, and more. The larger plan is to open 100 more franchisee outlets by the end of the next fiscal year.

Wat-a-Burger

This homegrown burger chain is born by bringing together an information technology professional and a pilot.

Farman Beig and Rajat Jaiswal founded Wat-a-Burger in 2016 to offer Indian consumers a taste of fusion burgers with their international and desi flavours.

Since opening the first outlet in Noida Sector 18, Wat-a-Burger has scaled up to more than 60 joints across 16 cities in over four years. This includes Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Gorakhpur, Faridabad, Ranchi, Jhansi, and Srinagar. Starting a business was always on Farman and Rajat’s minds.

“Rajat and I both have business acumen,” says Farman, who has an IT background. “While I was in England pursuing my MBA and Rajat was undergoing pilot training, we knew that once we were back in India, we would set up a business together.” On average the fast-food chain serves more than 80,000 customers every day. The business clocked a turnover of Rs 39 crore in FY20.

Jumboking

Dheeraj Gupta, Founder and Managing Director of Jumbo King, was inspired by John F Love’s McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, when he laid the foundation of his QSR chain with an outlet outside Malad railway station in Mumbai in August 2001.

Over the next few years, he took Jumboking to new heights. However, things went downhill in the next couple of years.

Dheeraj had raised Rs 6.5 crore venture capital from undisclosed sources in 2010, and was soon struggling with unit economics and overhead costs like rents and salaries.

“To win the QSR business in India, you need to own and understand the consumer. Foreign chains have the knowledge and understand what customers choose; that’s what Indian brands must solve at scale…we are on that journey,” Dheeraj says. The founder then took a bold bet, completely realigning the business model from company-owned stores to a franchise model. Jumboking, which was started as a vada pav brand grew to become a prominent burger brand. Today, Dheeraj and his 15-member team handle 114 franchise stores in two cities, Mumbai and Pune. They have bigger plans: 1,000 stores in the next five to seven years.

The headstand in Yoga- and what it means to be a yogi

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Known as ‘king of yoga asanas’- headstand or Sirsasana -is an inversion posture that accounts for multiple health benefits. Sirsha’ means ‘head’ and ‘asana’ means ‘posture’.

Who would’ve thought that one of the world’s greatest businessmen, Jeff Bezos-founder Amazon, would take inspiration from headstands!

He has famously said, “Running a business is equal to a headstand and entrepreneurs should keep this principle in mind when trying to lead their team. In headstands, people think that if they work hard, they should be able to master a handstand in about two weeks but in reality, it takes about six months of daily practice. Same way leaders need to “proactively communicate” and be realistic about how hard something is going to be. If they aren’t honest with their team about what it takes to achieve a goal, this makes the goal that much harder to hit.”

It should not come as a surprise that an Indian- Gopal Dangi (Udaipur, Rajasthan) holds the record for the world’s longest headstand for 3 hours and 33 minutes.

From influencers to celebrities to business persons everyone is showing off different fitness mantras online, and the headstand is one such posture that is becoming the talk of the town! Anushka Sharma posted a picture of hers doing a headstand on Instagram at the peak of her pregnancy.

Yoga guru, Mini Shashtri on the effects of headstands says, “Inverted postures assist the venous flow of blood towards the heart which engorges with blood while in headstand, thus strengthening the muscles of the heart. In Yogic parlance, the headstand powers a sluggish Apana Vayu which means that it facilitates the downward and outward flow of energy from the body. At the same time, the Agni or the digestive fire also gets powered. This helps in cleaning the intestines while releasing congested blood in the colon and thus, improving digestion.”

While on the subject of digestion, Indian QSR owner Dheeraj Gupta of Jumboking Foods is a well-known practitioner of the headstand. “You just have to allow yourself to do it,” he says.

Gupta’s advice is deeper than it seems because ‘allowing’ yourself is what takes tremendous practice. So let’s not rush into the headstand just because Bezos is doing it. Sadhguru, a yoga guru himself says, “ Yoga can improve your physical, mental, and spiritual well-being when done under supervision. Especially headstands should not be done without it, one can also cause broken artillery if your system is fully not ready for it.”

Mastering Sirsashana (headstand), just like mastering anything else, is a whole journey in itself. It requires tremendous application, focus and commitment. The process of learning how to do it and reaching the destination is transformative in itself.

10 Things to Consider when Selecting a Restaurant Franchisee

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Just as great students make a great college, it takes a team of committed franchisees to maintain the reputation of a franchisor.

Let’s draw a parallel between franchisee recruitment and selecting students for college admission. The laws are pretty much the same. A highly ranked college gets the cream of the applications. Students apply in large numbers and hence, the college gets to be more selective.

This unlocks a chain reaction. The college enhances its reputation year on year and committed students keep choosing it. Thanks to its reputation, the college begins to attract good teachers as well.

This constitutes a competitive advantage. It can be maintained if the college ensures that it maintains the highest standards of integrity and transparency and is seen as a trustworthy institution. Here are three actions that will inspire trust.

  • Students must get admission on merit
  • The teaching faculty must remain updated.
  • The infrastructure must be cutting edge.

This is how Ivy league institutions have differentiated themselves over the years and what makes them so prestigious.

This is exactly how franchising works as well. Take it from someone who has dedicated the last two decades to building a franchising business on these principles. And just as great students make a great college, it takes a team of committed franchisees to maintain the reputation of a franchisor.

Here’s what you have to keep in mind while selecting from a pool of prospective franchisees.

1. The candidate must be self-driven.He must have the hunger to prove himself in his own eyes, as well as to the world that he is a successful, capable entrepreneur

2. The candidate must be self-motivated:Buying into a reputed franchisee is no guarantee for success. Even the best franchisee systems have their share of franchisees who don’t succeed.

The franchisee system provides the framework like a college provides the framework. The franchisee then has to work with the infrastructure provided to him, and excel. There are bound to be challenges. Even if the franchisee is failing, he has to dig deep into his purpose, believe in the system and play his part

3. The candidate must be educated:When selecting a franchisee, look for a basic educational qualification. College education instills a certain amount of rigor and commitment in individuals.

Only a good student can appreciate ‘learning’ and become a good coach to the team that he will build as a franchisee.

4. The candidate must have requisite capital: This is extremely important. For the first franchise outlet or center, the candidate must have the necessary capital and then some more money to get started. It is well-documented that a franchisee business gives you an 80 percent chance of succeeding. Hence, it is useful to go in with zero loans. The first year is critical; the pressure to set up a business, while having to support a family and pay EMIs can get overwhelming for anyone. A loan free franchisee can exercise financial prudence and set some money aside to support their family for the initial months. They can dedicate themselves to building the business as well as derive the satisfaction of success.

5. The candidate must be detail oriented, process driven:I have met many entrepreneurs who want a food franchisee because they like cooking. These are not the dots to connect. A food franchisee is entirely about processes and has very little to do with your culinary skills. Those who are regimen-friendly and detail oriented will excel in franchising.

6. The candidate must be honest and value driven: People who pay their taxes, pay their franchise fee. They understand that by investing into buying the franchise they are not doing a favor to the franchisor. They are benefitting equally by dipping into the centralized system and scalable thought process. The services have to be paid for and everyone has to make money for the system to thrive and grow stronger. In term, they will grow stronger.

7. The candidate must offer full-time commitment:Being focused towards your business brings success. Getting a proven business model and scalable system on a platter can make you a franchisee lazy at times. But, the focused franchisee will take nothing for granted and invest into setting up multiple-unit franchises, enhancing their earning potential.

8. The candidate must start early:The best meetings are when a parent and their ward come to seek a franchise together. The parent offers their capital and wisdom and the ward offers their energy and time. Starting early is a great advantage to scale up and become a master franchisee of a mature franchisor.

9. The candidate must be progressive: It is extremely useful to be well-read and appreciate the larger picture; about progress, technology and where the economy is headed. This helps every franchise have the right conversations with their franchisor.

10. The candidate must be a good team player:The beauty of franchising is the aggregation of ideas and energy. The candidate must be able to appreciate others’ points of view.

These may sound like a qualitative assessment. However, Peter Drucker famously said “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This is what franchising is all about.

QSRs can unlock opportunities in 2022

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I remember the days back in my childhood when restaurants used to hand over menu cards that were 20 pages long, with each page listing 20-25 dishes. Now the server just hands you a QR code and whispers discreetly that a few items are not available. COVID has been a much needed vanity check for brands, especially QSRs.The magic ‘twosome’ of focus and discipline are back.

The silverThe silver lining of 2021 has been the success of IPOs in the QSR space. This has created a never before opportunity for investors that are looking to diversify their portfolio beyond tech. Those who missed the bus in the first round will want to join the party in the second round. QSR brands that expand in a focused manner will grow visibly. More IPOs will be seen over the next decade or so, from Indian origin brands.

The ‘business mantra’ for 2022 will be to ‘go an inch wide and a mile deep… instead of “go a mile wide and an inch deep.’ As this philosophy gains acceptance-
The most disciplined brands will win. Focussed brands that have survived the pandemic, will scale rapidly to 1000+ stores. Their familiarity has served as a soothing balm for a world recovering from the ambiguity of COVID. They will continue to innovate, offer value and retain the trust they have earned. Together with the international chains, they will spawn dozens of companies in the contract manufacturing space to meet their needs.

Around this hub will be an ecosystem of cloud kitchens, online deliveries and offline retail will find their own space in people’s lives, they will expand the market rather than cannibalize each other.

India is a very large market. Even if only 20% of us belong to the affording class, that number is equivalent to the entire population of the USA. This understanding of the power of India’s consumers, has dawned universally, in the last decade. From cricket viewership to mobile phone purchases India is leading everywhere.

With improved road infrastructure and connectivity brands will find it easier to penetrate tier 2 and tier 3 towns. Restaurant brands will be able to unlock their potential and amplify availability million-fold.

With the virtual presence of QSRs amplified beyond physical locations, off-premise dining will grow. On the consumer side-

1.As every individual seeks to contribute to household income, the demand for eating out will increase. Indians will be eating out 14-15 times a week from the current 2-3 times.

2. Occasion-based social-dining is back with lockdown relaxations, even as

Mobile ordering has soared.
Curbside pickup has found new life.
Third-party delivery has morphed from an experiment to a necessity.
Drive-throughs have found more takers

3. Customers will be spoilt for choice, hence businesses will have to offer greater ‘value, efficiency and trust.’

4. There will be a perceptible improvement in restaurant designs as the youth will want to associate with brands they have a rapport with.

5. Each consumption opportunity will have to be serviced appropriately- for e.g. the digital menu will contain products that ‘travel well’ for delivery and a separate in-store menu will offer food that is best served hot at the store itself.

There is no better time for entrepreneurship than now and no better place for it than India. More and more people want greater ownership of their future. Franchising as a business model will hence, grow rapidly and this will be a huge boost to the QSRs. Entrepreneurs will discover many options to start a business, cocooned within a brand’s safety net. We have survived one of the most difficult periods in human business history. The table is set for ingenuity and customer-centricity. While none of us will look back fondly on the pandemic, we will always have to acknowledge that this period helped us fast track into a new era for the restaurant industry.

Dheeraj Gupta is the Founder and MD of Jumboking

2022 will see greater adoption of franchising

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Several forecasts about ‘paradigm shifts in consumer habits’ were being discussed during COVID-19. Let us first acknowledge that a majority of the pre-pandemic habits are back; simply because these are fundamental and driven by man’s social needs.

The one perceptible shift one can see in consumers is a shift to ‘value’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘trust.’ At the risk of repetition, the words ‘value’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘trust’ converge into what we call A BRAND. Several brands, across industries are going to relook their own proposition and make themselves more accessible to larger audiences.

2022: The opportunity
There’s no denying that COVID sent culture shocks that permeated the social and economic fabric of nations and communities alike. The prolonged exposure to stress and the acceptance that the world is changing in newer ways- has had three major consequences-

  • More and more people want greater ownership of their future.
  • Brands have no choice but to offer greater ‘value, efficiency and trust’. Hence, they will have to innovate and grow prudently.
  • Each brand will unlock the potential to be amplified million-fold. The familiarity offered by a brand is a soothing balm for a world that is recovering from what has been an ambiguous two years.

The business model that can facilitate the above shifts is franchising. And India in particular is uniquely suited for the same because

  • 1) We are an entrepreneurial country: The next generation wants to run their own business and franchising will give them a balance of being their own boss and benefiting from the systems of a larger organization.
  • 2) Lucrative jobs will demand upskilling: Thanks to several digital-first initiatives and greater automation, the good jobs are moving to higher skilled folks. There is a large employee pool, whose administrative and people skills will be unlocked in a far more profitable way through franchising
  • 3) Resilience is more valuable than risk: With proven franchise opportunities available more people will see the merit in becoming part of an organized system rather than trying to do everything on their own.
  • 4) Efficient unit economics are critical: Skilled labor is and always will be expensive, especially in the food space. Franchising helps power ‘unit economics’- the cost of running the store is kept under check thanks to centralized manufacturing and investments in technology at the backend. Besides, for an individual franchise, good unit economics and good fundamentals will allow for scaling up.
  • 5) Shift from commodities to brands: 2022 will see consumers move from commodities to brands in the QSR space. As competition increases, it is the discipline of systems and processes to maintain the distinctiveness of the brand that will produce results. A good franchisor invests heavily in training- this will in turn translate into greater differentiation. Individual franchisees will benefit from easier discovery.

The whole is greater than the sum of parts
This is very apt for franchising. It turns out that there is safety in numbers. What we saw during COVID- a mad unsustainable race of ‘buy 1 get 1 free’ among QSRs, destroyed several promising start-ups in 2021. This has made people realize that running individual stores is not easy. Unforeseen crises and market movements tend to over-stretch the business to breaking point.

Franchisees are far more resilient. As the parent company drives margin protection via efficiency improvements u0026amp; cost cutting, every franchisee takes care of their own payroll and balance sheet. Several elements of cost are simply not theirs to bear.

Summing up, the Indian mindset is ideally suited to franchising; whatu0027s more, early adopters of franchising will benefit greatly in 2022.

By Dheeraj Gupta, Founder of Jumboking