jubilant foodworks: Why is Jubilant FoodWorks rising when friends are struggling? Sameer Khetarpal explains

Each time once I meet Sameer bhai from Jubilant FoodWorks, I all the time begin by saying yet one more factor, hungry ho kya?
Sameer Khetarpal: At all times. At all times hungry for extra and all the time considering daring.

Allow us to introduce the corporate. 15 years in the past, Jubilant FoodWorks was a franchisee of Domino’s Pizza. Now it’s extra of a meals platform firm with a number of manufacturers, which is pivoting into meals tech. What has modified and what is going to change?
Sameer Khetarpal: Basically, our objective has remained the identical, which is that we serve pleasure. When a small little lady will get a pizza, she is blissful and that makes her mom blissful. That has all the time stored me going and due to this fact our objective is to serve pleasure. What has modified is we’re main with extra expertise, higher objective, however meals stays the main focus. Our meals is now not an addition to a menu, however an enormous platform.

I gives you an instance. We launched Cheese Volcano, a blockbuster product, then we launched Cheese Burst in three new flavours, and right this moment we tasted complete new cheese ranges of product. I genuinely imagine cheese could be a Rs 1,000-crore platform for us. Equally, hen wings in Popeyes may be one other Rs 1000-crore product. We’re excited about extra platforms than simply sheer menu additions. We have gotten extra of a meals and meals expertise firm, however the objective to serve with pleasure or serve pleasure on a plate, that is still.

The QSR sector within the final six to eight quarters has gone by means of a tough trip. However for the quarter passed by declared numbers, there’s a marked enchancment in your identical retailer gross sales. There’s a marked enchancment in your ahead communication. So, why are you rising and what are you doing so in a different way when others are struggling?
Sameer Khetarpal: The reply is extra self-help. I perceive there’s a demand slowdown. Nonetheless, in these powerful instances, now we have completed three issues: now we have doubled down on worth. After experimentation, we launched free supply. We doubled down on giving extra cheese per product. The primary motive prospects order Domino’s is definitely the yearning for cheese and the third motive is simply sheer operations excellence. We ship extra orders in 20 minutes. When it’s Diwali or New 12 months or Christmas, our retailer workers is accessible all through the evening. Whether or not it’s Kumbh or Coldplay, we’re current in each places.

What number of pizzas did you ship in Kumbh?
Sameer Khetarpal: Now we have eight shops. Nonetheless, yesterday was the final day. I’m nonetheless to take an account. It has far exceeded our expectations. I’d have by no means imagined we will likely be promoting so many pizzas at each Kumbh and the Coldplay occasion.Identical retailer gross sales is the primary benchmark on which numbers are judged. There’s a huge uptick, double-digit progress. After 4 or 5 quarters of flat progress from destructive to optimistic, now it’s in double-digit. Will it maintain?
Sameer Khetarpal: I genuinely imagine so. And I’m an enormous believer in compounding. We’re buying new prospects at an unprecedented fee, virtually 2x what we have been doing a yr in the past. Our pizza-eating frequency, which is about three in a yr, has not come down and due to this fact, if this have been to occur, our identical retailer progress ought to be very excessive. As a class chief in pizza, our job is to develop the market and proceed to achieve share and we’re doing each.

I launched Jubilant as an organization which is accessible on completely different platforms, from biryani to Chinese language meals to Dunkin’ Donuts, the worldwide presence in addition to espresso. However your dependence on pizza remains to be 90%.
Sameer Khetarpal: It’s.Now that’s good however that can also be dangerous. I’m certain that pizza demand won’t be cyclical however isn’t the dependence on only one class dangerous?
Sameer Khetarpal: I feel sure and no and what I’d say is there are about 20,000 Domino’s Pizza shops within the US. India has solely 2,000 and now we have virtually 4x the inhabitants. There are 11,000 KFC in China in 1,000 cities. We’re nonetheless very small.

11,000 KFCs!
Sameer Khetarpal: 11,000 KFCs.

One single model in China has 11,000 shops.
Sameer Khetarpal: And including 1,000 shops a yr.

Up to now, when there was a slowdown, now we have seen Jubilant reorganising their shops. Wherever there was duplication, you’ve got reduce these shops. However this time round, you might be actually going all in with retailer enlargement.
Sameer Khetarpal: We’re bringing expertise and AI into our retailer operations. And what you see right this moment is a reproduction of our retailer and this room or expertise centre known as retailer.ai. Now retailer.ai does three issues. One, it helps us broaden our community. Second, it drives extra income per retailer. Third, it drives extra engagement and repeat per buyer. All three metrics are completed by retailer.ai.

As we stand right this moment, now we have a listing of 1000’s of places based mostly on precise knowledge utilization of Domino’s prospects who usually are not capable of get Domino’s. So, we all know the place to open the subsequent thousand shops. We have already got a listing. All we want is a proper location on the proper rental, we’re able to open shops.

Second is the income per retailer. Via restaurant co-pilot, what we’re growing is an assistant for our restaurant managers in order that they will deal with the entrance of the home, promote extra pizzas. Their stock administration, rostering may be taken away.

Third is the supply. For instance, I’m wanting riders. Usually, I’ll shut down the shop. Whether it is raining, I’ll shut down the shops. Now the instruments and the AI are mechanically lowering the polygons, shutting down one a part of the realm or one channel and in consequence, what we’re seeing is we’re capable of get way more from the shop.

How a lot have you ever invested in AI?
Sameer Khetarpal: So, now we have a complete group of about 200 engineers, all in-house, who’re growing these merchandise however throughout channels, throughout platforms. So, it’s a huge funding for us and I can not make investments extra in it.

What I’m making an attempt to grasp is that, is the ROI, return on funding in AI, actually going that can assist you since you are investing up entrance, the outcomes can be coming backended. Are you assured that this funding will give you the results you want?
Sameer Khetarpal: One of many the explanation why Jubilant FoodWorks or Domino’s isn’t just the primary pizza firm in India but additionally the primary QSR is as a result of we all the time made daring investments in expertise. Now we have our personal app, nearly all of orders and new prospects come from our personal app. After I got here in, I invested your complete expertise group into Domino’s app. I shut down all programmes to deal with this. It’s paying off now.

We additionally constructed the rider administration app in-house and it was all outsourced. Our loyalty was outsourced. All the pieces is now in-house and also you see how our app is bettering day-to-day. So, the ROI is unquestionably there and I genuinely imagine retailer.ai will assist us enhance effectivity, forestall income leakages and make the restaurant managers life quite a bit easier. Domino’s retailer in India has the very best throughput per retailer when it comes to quantity anyplace on the planet.