On the back of their recently announced new funding of one million dollars (approximately 6.6Cr), Kabir Jeet Singh CEO and founder of
Burger Singh which operates under Tipping Mr Pink Pvt Ltd, speaks of the business and why they are so lucky with investors.
In October 2015, the company announced an investment 2.2Cr which was used for expansion in Delhi NCR. One of its busiest and profitable branches, the one at Connaught Place (CP) was set up with those funds. “We experience high footfall at CP and daily we see about 20-30% of customers walk away disappointed because the queues to order are too long.” This new infusion of cash received from the set of existing investors, Ashvin Chadda, Rahul Singh (Beer café), Dheeraj Jain (Redcliffe Capital), Rannvijay Singh (MTV Roadies) Capt. Salim Sheikh (ex -Sayaji Hotels Ltd) and Avtar Monga (COO of IDFC Bank).
Speaking to BWDisrupt Kabir said it wasn’t difficult to raise these funds and took approximately 30-40 days. “There’s currently a funding crunch out there but there’s funding for good companies.”
Their secret to getting funding“We don’t want to build a Unicorn, we are trying to build a Cockroach here”, he quips. “From the beginning we have always run a tight business model here. We are very conscious of our capital expenditure and occupancy costs. We didn’t take very large elaborate spaces for our shops”, explains Kabir.
Investor confidence in Burger SinghInvestor Dheerej Jain of Redcliffe Capital has other investments in F&B including Yumlane and a sparkling wine business. According to Dheerej, food is not a high multiple return industry but one that will deliver benefits over a long term of brand building. He returns as an investor because he has confidence the Burger Singh team is capable of building a reputable brand. “The CEO is doing a good job. We have seen M-o-M growth. The average ticket has increased from 350 rupees to around 400 rupees. This shows that the team has created food customers like. We hope to further increase our presence by setting up a larger chain of small shops.” (His favourite burger is the “United States of Punjab Chicken Burger” and the “Potato Crunch Burger”.)
In addition to adding more physical stores the Burger Singh CEO Kabir speaking to PTI said, “We currently have eight stores and by September next year, we should have 26 stores that will be a mix of company-owned and franchise-owned, company-operated models."
Future plansSpeaking of other future plans, Kabir said they hope to take about 70% delivery orders through online ordering. Currently 60% of the deliveries come through their call centre. Besides this the company does not want to spend too much on customer acquisition. It mostly relies on social media campaigns, referrals, word of mouth, radio ads for Delhi NCR (for every 1 Rs spent 25 Rs is earned here according to Kabir), and print ads mostly for Gurgaon. Customer retention has been quite good with 74% of customers returning within 60 days.
Kabir also says they do not want to spend on converting pizza lovers to burger lovers. “We leave that to the larger companies who can afford to do that. I think they are succeeding when you look at how pizza brands are now making burger-pizzas.”
The Indianized burger operation won’t be increasing prices of any SKUs as they have hit a “sweet spot” but will continue to introduce and remove about two burger choices in the menu every quarter to keep things interesting.
Expansion outside of India is also on the cards; Kabir says they hope to be the “first globally accepted QSR out of India.”
In other funding plans Burger Singh, will be looking to raise 5 million dollars in Series A in coming times.
BW Reporters
Regina is a reporter for BW Businessworld. In her previous assignments, she has worked with Independent television Network as a news anchor and reporter in Sri Lanka
