Dheeraj Gupta is a man with a big vision: to take on McDonald's with traditional vegetarian street food from Mumbai and make it as synonymous with India as a burger and fries are to the United States.
The 34-year-old and his wife, Reeta, 32, run Jumbo King, a Mumbai-based fast-food company that sells vada pav, a deep-fried spicy potato patty in a bun that is the size and shape of a quarter-pounder. Vada pav has suffered from a reputation problem in recent years: cooked and sold by greasy-handed vendors from grimy stalls on the side of Mumbai's teeming and polluted roads, it was considered food for the poor.
But to tackle public hesitancy over hygiene, Jumbo King introduced centralised production lines and more rigorous standards of cleanliness, which appears to have worked, attracting schoolchildren to office workers.
The product has proved so lucrative for the entrepreneurial Guptas that they now have ambitious plans to expand from some 50 franchised outlets at present to about 200 by the end of next year.
Eight to 10 new franchises are opening each month. Many are strategically located at stations on Mumbai's bustling suburban rail network, at busy road intersections and near markets to ensure regular customers. Once franchise numbers hit 500, Gupta told AFP that they will look at publicly listing the company and also expanding overseas to meet demand from expat Indians hungry for a taste of home. "Our vision is to make vada pav into the national snack.
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