American fried-chicken chain Popeyes, whose India franchise is with Jubilant FoodWorks, will five new stores in Mumbai as part of its store expansion plan. The brand aims to touch 250-outlets in the next 3-4 years from 63 stores now. Sameer Khetarpal, Jubilant FoodWorks MD & CEO tells Viveat Susan Pinto how the firm is differentiating Popeyes from its nearest competitor KFC. He also throws light on how Jubilant FoodWorks is driving value across delivery and dine-in operations and the company’s investment in technology. Excerpts:
What is the reason behind launching five Popeyes stores in quick succession in Mumbai?
Mumbai is an important market and also a competitive one. Popeyes is currently present in 23 cities including metros with 63 stores. We were clear we didn’t want to miss out on the Mumbai market, which is an important consumption centre. The journey to get here with Popeyes started almost a year ago in terms of identifying the properties and catchments we wanted to target. Three Popeyes stores have been launched on Wednesday and another two will come up in the next one month. We want to grow Popeyes into a Rs 1,000-crore brand in the next three years. A rapid store rollout strategy will help us achieve this objective.
Apart from Popeyes, are there any more Rs 1,000-crore bets that you are incubating at Jubilant FoodWorks?
We are clear that we are serving joy on a plate. Our bets are based on deep consumer insights. For instance, we find that customers order Domino’s due to their craving for cheese. We have responded to this with a strong menu around cheese. For instance, we launched Cheese Volcano, which was a hit with customers. We then launched Cheese Burst in three new flavours. We continue to add to the cheese line-up we have at Domino’s. I genuinely believe that cheese can become a Rs 1,000-crore platform. Similarly, we have introduced chicken wings at Domino’s, which can also become a Rs 1,000-crore bet. The post 11 pm eating time, which is a culture that we find growing in India, is also a platform that we believe can be expanded into a Rs 1,000-crore bet in the future.
How are you driving value across delivery and dine-in operations?
We have doubled down on value. After experimentation, we launched free delivery. We doubled down on giving more cheese per product. We are also focusing on operational excellence. We deliver more orders in 20 minutes. Whether it is Diwali, Christmas or New Year, our store staff is available late into the night. Be it the Kumbh Mela or a Coldplay concert, we are present everywhere.
You remain bullish about store additions for Domino’s Pizza as well. Can the domestic retail market absorb so much when the salaried class is a little cautious in terms of spending at the moment?
Scale becomes important for us because we are playing on the platform of value. With scale we can drive efficiencies in the business and keep price hikes down. Let me tell you that we have not taken price increases for nearly 15 quarters in a row in our portfolio. In a retail market that has seen a discretionary slowdown, driving value helps a retailer recruit more consumers, which in turn helps same-store sales growth. It took us 28 years to get to 2,000 Domino’s stores. We want to accelerate that pace and add 1,000 Domino’s stores in the next three years. While it is an ambitious target, I think execution will be critical here. We have, for instance, added 61 stores in the June quarter, ending the period with 2,240 stores. We will keep inching up.
What is the capital expenditure plan for these store additions?
We are actually coming off a high capex cycle of nearly Rs 1,000 crore that we invested in the last three years. The outlook on capex for FY26 is that it will be largely store and technology-led and will not be as significant as it was over the last three years.
You are amplifying investments in artificial intelligence. How is this helping you?
We are bringing artificial intelligence into our store operations. By installing cameras and sensors at our stores and supply chain operations, we are creating a virtual replica of our stores. We call this store.ai. Through store.ai, we are doing three things. One, it helps us expand our network. Second, it drives more revenue per store. Third, it drives more engagement and repeats per customer. We are also developing a restaurant managers co-pilot, where based on data analytics and consumer behaviour… a manager can decide which area to service, where the orders are coming from and which product is a hit or not. We are also personalising the consumer journey on our Domino’s app.