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Mr Venkatesh Iyer, Co-Founder of the Mumbai-based Goli Vada Pav (GVP), a chain that doles out the popular Mumbaiya snack, believes it can become India's own burger, given that both are basically patties placed between two pieces of bread.
The chain, of which Mr Shivadas Menon is another founder, is now established in Tier-II cities in Maharashtra and Bangalore, and wants to expand in the South.
GVP recently got Rs 21-crore funding from the Chennai-based VenturEast, will use it to strengthen manpower and IT systems. It uses social media to market itself, says Mr Iyer, who met some mediapersons here today. The founders worked in corporate finance earlier.
The chain has 120 outlets across India, most of them in Maharashtra's tier-II cities, 20 in Bangalore, a couple in Hyderabad and one in Chennai.
In the next 3-5 years, it expects to have 500 stores operating across the country, 150 of them in the South. This would call for adding two new facilities, one each in the North and South, to the unit in Mumbai.
Employee training
GVP intends launching a certificate course in retail management for its employees that would aid their advancement within and outside the chain. It will collaborate with training schools and hopes to launch it within a year. A so-certified employee who works for a year at GVP can become a cluster manager and even an entrepreneur later, says Mr Iyer.
India Eats
When the business was set up in 2004, it capitalised on some observations and goals: Potato and wheat is a universally loved combination (in India, think bonda, samosa, aloo paratha ); Indians love besan (gram flour – think Mysore pak, son papdi, dhokla ); the snack has to be ready and served in five minutes; it has to be fast food, finger food and mobile food (that could be eaten on the go). Wastage, pilferage and price and quality standardisation were challenges.
A tie-up with Vista Processed Foods, which makes the patties for McDonald's burgers, ensured them a standardised supply – with a proprietary spice “formula” of ginger, chilli and garlic supplied by GVP's factory. Frozen patties are ferried in trucks to outlets which only have to fry and assemble the snack. Chutneys and pav are sourced locally. The chain serves seven varieties of vada pav , including corn-spinach, cheese and Szechuan, priced Rs 20-35 apiece. What would it do in Chennai, where the vada (a potato patty) may well be mistaken for a medu vada ? “Yeah, we'll have to address these problems,” says Mr Iyer, adding that they may introduce versions with paruppu vada, bonda and local chutneys.
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