Dheeraj Gupta, 30, could have easily joined his family's well-established business. Instead he decided to do his

own thing. Taking inspiration from fast-food burger chain McDonald's, Gupta decided to sell Mumbai's

favourite poor man's food as a brand. Three years ago he started Jumbo King, a branded vada pav chain.

Gupta has changed all the rules by introducing automation, packaging, a larger size, different cheese, round

bread (otherwise the pav is square) and flat patties instead of round.

From one store outside a suburban local station, today there are seven in the city. And Gupta is looking at

franchises across the metropolis. In three to five years time, he wants Mumbai to have 75 Jumbo King outlets.

By next year, he wants to double his current turnover of over Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million).

My grandfather was the real pioneer in our family. He migrated to Mumbai from a village close to Haryana in

the '40s and started as a cleaner at a tea stall at a station. He gradually built a business of vending stalls.

Later, my father and uncles took over and built the restaurant and hotel business. I had a very comfortable

childhood. Born and brought up in Mumbai, after schooling at Jamnabai Narsee, I did my catering course from

the Dadar Catering College and have a management degree from a Pune institute.

I wanted to do something on my own, but related to the food industry, particularly fast-food. At the time, the

McDonald's and Pizza Hut had not opened yet, otherwise I would have loved to have worked for them.

After my management degree in 1998, I decided to set up my own business selling packaged Indian sweets. I

had an idea that if we could somehow innovate and increase the shelf life of Indian mithai, there was a huge

export market waiting to be tapped.

So borrowing Rs 500,000 from my brother, I set up a company called Manali Foods. We tried various things,

even set up a research lab to find out how to improve shelf life, but nothing worked. I soon realised the futility

of the business model and began to look ahead.

During that time, when we were tapping the export market, I had made a trip to London and stayed with a

person who was a Burger King franchisee. That's when I saw how their business worked. Coming back, I

happened to come across a book - Behind the Golden Arches - about the person who set up McDonald's. It

inspired me tremendously and I decided to follow the same model.

Vada pav was the obvious food choice because Mumbai-ites love it. I borrowed Rs 200,000 from my family and

set up an outlet, which the family owned, near Malad station, a Mumbai suburb, and called it Chaat Factory.

The plan was to brand and sell all the chaats available in the market in a hygienic manner.

But we started with only the vada pav. One day when I was standing at the store, two ladies called the store a

con, since we were only selling vada pav. So I immediately decided to change the name. Since we were selling

a larger vada pav than what was available in the market, we decided to rename it Jumbo King.

Initially there were a lot of objections; everyone told me I was mad to waste my management degree by selling

vada pavs. But I was determined to make it a success. I had priced the vada pav at Rs 5 whereas it sold for as

little as Rs 2 in the market.

But my selling proposition was hygiene. Since I had nothing to lose, I experimented with everything -  two

outlets on the same side of one station, packaging, vada pav with cheese, flat patties, round bread, toasted bread

and so on.

In the last quarter of the first year, we made a total of Rs 600,000 from just one outlet. The other outlets opened

in 2003. I was worried at first about expanding because I was dealing with a perishable commodity, and

catering to far-off places from a centralised kitchen was a constant worry.

Jumbo King Vada PavWould you be able to resist delicious roadside food - if it were hygienic? Dheeraj Gupta, the Jumbo Vada Pav King, bet you couldn't. Now every day, at least 40,000 people prove him right.

Entrepreneur : Dheeraj GuptaAge : 33Company : Jumbo King Foods Pvt. Ltd.Based in : MumbaiFounded in : 2001Industry : Hospitality/ Service / Travel

Business Summary:Retail chain/ quick-service restaurants branding roadside food

Ironically, it wasn't the Mumbai-ite's love of the vada pav that initially inspired Dheeraj Gupta. Though biting into one of the piping-hot treats, consisting of deep fried potato dumpling served in a lightly-buttered bun, may be elevating, Dheeraj's original inspiration for Jumbo King Vada Pav was much more prosaic.While visiting London, Dheeraj stayed with a friend who owned a Burger King franchise. "That's when I saw how their business worked," he says. Dheeraj was fascinated by the fast food franchise business. "Back in India, I happened to come across a book about the person who set up McDonald's. It inspired me tremendously and I decided to follow the same model."But he wanted to give the business an Indian flavor. "Vada pav was the obvious food choice because Mumbai-ites love it," he says. Vada pavs are one of Mumbai's favorite roadside fast foods.Dheeraj took his idea further - he was willing to bet that, for snacks they knew were hygienic, people would pay him more than twice the price than they would pay for a vada pav from a traditional street stall.So in August 2001, Dheeraj set up an outlet called Chaat Factory close to Malad station, a suburb in Mumbai. "I wanted to sell hygienic chaats in the market. But I started with vada pavs only." His success selling this one snack focused his attention, and he renamed the company Jumbo King Vada Pav.The Opportunity

It turns out that vada pavs are a young person's food. In fact, a feasibility study performed by Jumbo King showed that 75% of vada pav purchasers are 16 to 25 years old. Also, surprisingly, the majority of people purchasing the snack hail from the higher income brackets.At Jumbo King, Dheeraj and his team are therefore playing into some important trends: more young people today have money to spend; and at the same time, they are increasingly health- and hygiene-

conscious, wanting to know that they are receiving good quality food. Jumbo King, explains Dheeraj, "is riding on this generation."

Thousands of street-side vendors still dominate the quick food market, and placed among these, Jumbo King is distinctly different. "Right from deciding to use paper to wrap the product in, having processes and systems in place, branding a common Mumbai-ite's food, to running the business like the Western style fast-food giants, we have constantly innovated, dared and gone against the tide."In one area, Jumbo King maintains a more traditional outlook - like all retailers, they focus on location, location, location. Today, all Jumbo outlets are located near railway stations.By combining the elements above, Jumbo King seems to have come up with a successful "secret sauce". Today the company has 30 outlets in Mumbai, two in Surat, one in Ahmedabad, one in Baroda and one in Pune.

The Money

A loan of Rs. 2 lakhs kick-started the business. Growth has been helped by the fact that the business can generate quick cash flow: the first Jumbo King outlet at Malad made money from day one."All the money from the business was ploughed back into buying the second store," says Dheeraj, who used to take back home a salary of only Rs. 5,000 a month. Dheeraj has been creative in funding additional growth, tapping different sources. He took a bank loan to open the third store at Andheri (W). The fourth store became the first franchised store of Jumbo King. Since then Jumbo King has followed the franchise model. How will Jumbo King fuel future growth? Dheeraj and his team feel they would like to bring in investors, but only after they reach the 100 store mark. "The money from this investment will take the product to a completely different league," says Dheeraj passionately.

The Team

Initially there were a lot of objections. "Everyone told me I was mad to waste my hotel management degree by selling vada pavs. But I was determined to make it a success," explains Dheeraj.Dheeraj started Jumbo King along with his wife and four employees, who helped with cleaning, packing and maintenance. "We did all the accounts ourselves at the end of the day at the store. There was no office." Gradually, he integrated franchisees into the system.

With the support of his wife Reeta, also an MBA, Dheeraj has managed to expand the Jumbo King team to a total of 35 employees, with an increasingly professional set up. In fact, they have brought in a CEO, and are looking for senior people to join the team. Dheeraj puts forward a mature perspective, "The idea was to get in people who have seen larger businesses, and who can anticipate issues of scaling better than I can."The Company - today and tomorrow

What started off as a tiny experiment in 2001 has expanded to 35 outlets in five cities, catering to about 40,000 people every day. This translates into some solid financials. This year, Jumbo King is looking at a turnover of Rs. 18 crores (almost $5 million) and with rapid growth to a projected turnover of Rs. 60 crores in 2008-09.

Dheeraj anticipates continued growth in the fast food Indian market for Jumbo King. He believes "the Indian market can easily accommodate 5000 stores in 8-10 years time. We are looking at Jumbo

King doing a billion dollars worth of revenue by then," he says.Looking beyond India, he adds, "With such a huge local population and such a huge expat population, I don't see why there can't be 12-15,000 Jumbo King stores all over the world."And, it's not just independent vada pav stores that he's considering. Dheeraj wants to expand into food courts and malls. "Vada pavs have the potential of becoming a big category by itself, with many brands competing in this category. And we have an early mover advantage" says Dheeraj