Jumbo King – In the making of a Super brand!!

“It is many things to many people -- it is simple, tasty, and yes, very cheap. But it is certainly not the stuff of dreams, especially the global kind.” – Dheeraj Gupta, Founder of Jumbo King.

Ironically, it wasn't the Mumbai-ite's love of the Vada Pav that initially inspired Dheeraj Gupta and his wife Reeta Gupta in 2001. Though biting the piping-hot treats of deep fried potato dumpling served in a lightly-buttered bun may be surging, Dheeraj's original impetus for Jumbo King’s Vada Pav was much more straightforward. When he visited London to his friend who owned a Burger King Franchise and seeing his business making huge profits, fascinated him the most. Getting also inspired by ‘McDonald's: Behind the Arches’- A book by John F Love, he started to give his thoughts a blanket of Indian flavour and returned to Mumbai to open his first outlet named as ‘Chaat Factory’ near Malnad Railway Station leaving behind his family owned business. Contrary to Vada Pav sold by hawkers, the Jumbo king Vada Pav is cooked in a state-of-the-art and hygienic system at every outlet. His strategic decision of reaching the higher mass by staying close to customers cost him high rents but eventually it went on fetching higher returns as his large size product went popular winning the hearts of foodies.

Now, here was a product available at almost every nook and corner of Mumbai, hugely popular and started selling for as little as Rs 5. Later, Innovation too triggered to launch many new products.

23rd August 2001	Jumboking opens its first outlet.
23rd August 2004	Jumboking has started experimenting with franchising and now has 6 operational outlets.
23rd August 2005	Jumboking has 15 operational outlets.
March 2007	Jumboking receives award for New Concept in Franchising.
March 2007	Jumboking receives award for Innovative Franchisee model.
2008	Featured by BBC as one of Asia’s most innovative business models.
2009	Jumboking becomes a case study by knowledge@Wharton
2010	Jumboking`s MD Dheeraj Gupta invited to be on the jury-ET Retail Awards
2011	Jumboking gets invited to the retail leadership summit 2011
2011	Jumboking ranked among the top 100 Franchise opporunities of the year 2011 in India
November 2011	Jumboking sells nine crore Vada Pavs, MS Dhoni becomes our 9 croreth customer.
June 2012	Jumboking upgrades to a international Frozen Products Supply Chain.
2013	Jumboking goes national with the launch of its expansion program in 18 new cities across India

Today, Jumbo King is run like any western fast-food giant, with standard operating procedures in place for every area of operation. In terms of management strategies and decisions, it has a lot on its plate. Across all stores, the motto is the same: a simple food at an affordable price in clean surroundings.

Having grown huge, this jumbo-sized success story today boast to sell more than 9 crore Vada pav and have over fifty bright yellow and orange self-serve, fast-food branches spanning various cities. Dheeraj’s ambitious project anticipates to hit more than 1000 outlets and targets billion dollars higher turnovers in years to come. This great insights with innovation in product delivery, has helped this food corner in its heist to Zenith. Though faced threats by many competitors and challenge to bring the love for Vada Pav pan India, Jumbo King has been able to position itself well in the market. Kudos to the enterprising Gupta couple for transforming the way Vada Pav is served in India today and hope it is here to stay, to sail higher!!