Aiming to consolidate itself first in its strongest market, Mumbai, fast-food chain JumboKing Foods, plans to expand aggressively in the city by opening 60 more outlets this year at an investment of Rs 10 crore, a top company official said.
Aiming to consolidate itself first in its strongest market, Mumbai, fast-food chain JumboKing Foods, plans to expand aggressively in the city by opening 60 more outlets this year at an investment of Rs 10 crore, a top company official said.
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"We will be opening 60 more JumboKing outlets in Mumbai (in addition to the existing 40) by end-December at an overall investment of Rs 10 crore," JumboKing Foods Managing Director, Dheeraj Gupta, told PTI.
JumboKing Foods markets the Maharashtrian speciality 'vada-pav' through its outlets which will number 100 after the expansion. Of the 60 to be rolled-out, 40 would be company-owned and the balance would be on the franchise basis.
While the company would bring in Rs four crore, high networth individuals (HNIs) would invest the remaining Rs six crore. The HNIs could also become the franchisees, he said. The company plans to hire around 200 personnel for its proposed 40 stores, he said.
JumboKing is looking to position its outlets at places having high footfalls such as railway stations and malls, he said. "We hope to sell 80,000-1 lakh units after the new outlets are opened," Gupta said.
"Of the 52 outlets that we have in Mumbai and cities of Gujarat, only 12 are company-owned and operated. The remaining 40 are all franchisees," Gupta said.
JumboKing presently sells 35,000-40,000 units of 'vada-pav' each day, while the city has an off-take of about 15 lakh units on a daily basis through 7,000 different sellers. The company's growth has shrunk by about 10 per cent in the wake of the global meltdown and the 26/11 terror strikes.
"Earlier, we had been growing at 15 per cent year-on-year on a same-store basis, but the footfalls dipped in December post-the terror attacks, with growth shrinking to five per cent," he said, adding "sales have now improved."
With its outlets in Gujarat not faring as well as expected, the company's strategy from now on would be to consolidate itself at one location and then expand, he said.
"Our outlets in Gujarat have not done well as those in Mumbai. We've realised that it is better to move in clusters, so we will first set up as many outlets as possible in Mumbai," Gupta said.
JumboKing has initiated discussions with Indian Railways' caterer, IRCTC, to open its outlets in railway stations pan-India. "IRCTC has shown interest in the idea and we are waiting for the deal to come through some time this month," Gupta said
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