Mumbai: Who wouldn’t love to dig their teeth into a crispy burger, the one which makes a crunchy sound each time you bite into it? We all certainly would love to. Hop on to the ride wherein we take you through the story of Good Flippin’ Burgers, which has made quite a ‘sound’ in the QSR (quick service restaurant) market ever since it sprung up in 2019.
Launched in Mumbai, the brand currently has a total of 21 outlets across the city and Delhi, with a headcount of more than 250 employees. With 14 stores across Mumbai, the brand made inroads in Delhi this year with seven new outlets, which include one exclusive mall outlet too.
It all started with the simple aim of creating a haven for foodies that serves fresh, delicious burgers that are priced right. Since then, the burger chain has been flippin’ hearts from one customer to the next every day across all its outlets.
The size of the organised QSR sub-segment is estimated to be Rs 348 billion, and the chain QSR segment is estimated to be Rs 176 billion. The QSR chain segment is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 per cent over FY20–FY25. The QSR market is led by international brands such as Domino’s Pizza, McDonald's, and Burger King. International brands dominate this space, as players such as Domino’s Pizza, McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and Subway cumulatively account for about 52 per cent of the chain QSR market in India.
In an exclusive tête-à-tête with Indiantelevision.com, Good Flippin’ Burgers founders Sijo Mathew, Sid Marchant, and Viren D’Silva discuss the QSR market, starting up almost at the onset of the pandemic and still making it through, et al.
Good Flippin’ Burgers plans to finish with an annual revenue of Rs 40 crore this year and is on the way to getting to approx. Rs 300 crore in under four years.
In 2022–2023, the brand aims to expand geographically in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, and Bangalore with multi-formats that include cloud, dine-in, hybrid, malls, and airports. It has been building for scale from day one. The current menu includes 13 burgers, 11 sides and two hotdogs for vegetarians, non-vegetarians, and vegans alike. Dine-in outlets also serve an entire coffee & shake menu as well.
Earlier this year, Good Flippin’ Burgers announced a fresh round of funding amounting to one million dollars. It was led by Kerala Blasters Football Club director Nikhil Bharadwaj, IIFL Wealth & Asset Management founder, managing director, & CEO Karan Bhagat, IIFL Wealth & Asset Management co-founder and joint CEO of wealth management business Yatin Shah, Deen Dayal Investments index trader Manish Hathiramani. Along with these respected names, others from the Mumbai entertainment industry also participated in this round, which included Netflix India general counsel Kiran Desai, Vikram Malhotra, Mamta Anand, and Vedant Bali.
Three passionate foodies, Matthew, Marchant, and D’Silva, moved from their corporate backgrounds to start an entrepreneurial journey in the food and hospitality industries. Each member brought a unique and varied experience to the table that created synergies, building on each other’s strengths. The one aim that bound all of them together was the dream to make Good Flippin’ Burgers India’s most loved burger brand. Their individual experiences all added up to creating goalposts to reach this vision.
Under their leadership, Good Flippin’ Burgers endeavours to ensure burgers are served as they are meant to be: fresh, full of flavour, non-messy, and delicious. As the patrons grew, one delicious burger at a time, investors who loved Good Flippin’ Burgers and wanted to be a part of its growth journey came on board, keeping people, processes, products, and patrons as its key stakeholders.
Marchant is a first-generation entrepreneur, a certified Q grader (coffee), and a Specialty Coffee Association trainer. He started his career in retail real estate and progressed to the food and beverage industry. The former category head (food & beverage) of Tata Starbucks has an overall 17 years of combined experience in the retail real estate and food & beverage industries. Marchant co-founded KC Roasters (formerly Koinonia Coffee Roasters) and successfully ran a Tibbs Frankie franchise. He also conceptualised and introduced Starbucks’ first Diwali blend coffee internationally. Driven by sheer passion and business acumen, he identified the premium burger QSR chain business as a niche with immense growth potential and hence started Good Flippin’ Burgers.
D’Silva started his career as a contributing journalist for mid-day while still in college, which nurtured his interest in brand communication. His work experience spanning 20 years across various managerial roles in the sports industry gave him the opportunity to explore various aspects of running a team. These included the role of CEO Sports for two franchises in the ISL (Indian Super League) for Kerala Blasters and the PKL (Premier Kabaddi League) for Tamil Thalaivas, launching a sports channel - Prime Sports - in the Middle East with Arab Radio and Television, and sales of international media rights for the IPL with World Sport Group.
D’Silva met Marchant when he partnered with him in the Tibbs Frankie franchise and developed a great working relationship. He came on board to scale and grow Good Flippin’ Burgers as a national brand.
Mathew was born and raised in the Middle East. He moved to Afghanistan in 2007 to support his brother’s efforts to support the US military and NATO in their peacekeeping efforts. He later worked for the US department of defence in Kabul as a logistic expert till 2016.
Over the years, he kept working on his passion project: the perfect recipe for the perfect burger. As his recipe and taste buds evolved, he became a burger purist and a firm believer in the fact that burgers are meant to be simple. The flavours of the meat must do the talking instead of all the accompaniments and sauces. Prior to joining hands with Sid and Viren in Good Flippin’ Burgers, Matthew was a part of the Bay City Grill, a popular burger joint in Bandra.
At Good Flippin’ Burgers, Matthew heads product development, a role the self-taught chef is happy to potter around in as he picks up customer conversations and experiments with creating new burgers that will delight foodies. All the lip-smacking and unique recipes of Good Flippin' Burgers have been created by him.
Excerpts:
On launching Good Flippin’ Burgers almost at the brink of covid, and the way the pandemic affected your business, especially when you were just starting off
Matthew: A lot of restaurants were affected by the lockdown, forcing people to stay in rather than dine out. The pandemic, however, accelerated our growth as people were ready to experiment and try out new forms of fine cuisine via online delivery. Burgers were one such category that benefited, and it became an acceptable and much sought-after category under online delivery. We started off as a delivery brand, so we were well poised and ready to cater to the needs of our customers during the pandemic.
Hygiene is our topmost priority and is non-negotiable at Good Flippin’. Customers who regularly ordered from us were assured of the quality, taste, and great hygiene standards of our burgers and recommended Good Flippin’ Burgers to their friends and families, which helped our brand gain popularity soon. We serve delicious, juicy, non-messy burgers that have great packaging, on-time marketing, and assured customer support to ensure that, in 30 minutes or less, we are able to deliver the customer as close to a close-in dine-in experience as possible. All of this created a favourable environment for us and accelerated our growth.
On the USP of Good Flippin’ Burgers and drawing so much popularity for the brand in such little time
Marchant: We believe popularity is a by-product of consistently doing the simple things every day with a focus on the product, people, and process, and on the patrons to whom we listen. Their valuable feedback constantly helps us improve ourselves. The USP of Good Flippin’ Burgers is that it has been built for scale from day one and provides our customers with the best and most consistent experience, crafted with love and joy, be it home delivery or a dine-in experience.
On starting a burger brand like Good Flippin’ Burgers when there are already so many burger brands in the country
Marchant: Yes, there are various burger brands, but there are very few national brands and even international homegrown brands. The market was underpenetrated when we started, and over the years, many new brands have entered the market.
On you three finding a way to each other – whether being friends/acquaintances from before, the common love for food or something else brought you three together to launch Good Flippin’ Burgers
D’Silva: It is interesting that you put it that way, and God definitely played a part in bringing us together. Sid and I go back 15 years, and food has always been on the periphery of our conversations. We started TIBB’s franchises as a side hustle whilst we had corporate day jobs. But we did not have our own product that was a reflection of our ambitions, and that’s when Marchant met Matthew, the man with the magic hands who made the best burgers we had ever eaten. The lure of creating a home-grown international brand was too much of an opportunity as well as a challenge to let go, so we quit our corporate jobs and became the power of three with the vision to be India’s most loved burger brand.
On the investments made by Good Flippin’ Burgers and fundraising for the company (apart from the funding that you raised earlier this year) - your future plans?
D’Silva: Good Flippin’ Burgers has invested in people and processes. With people, be it the corporate team or people who work at the stores, we have never tried to cut corners as they are the human capital we have invested in. With the process, we have focused on automation, replication, and identification, be it the automated equipment in our stores or product creation in the central kitchen. We invest in understanding our consumers by listening, learning, and reacting in a personalised manner. Technology plays a crucial role in the area of investment.
Fundraising is a continuous process, but we only raise money to grow and expand. The right capital from the right people is important, and by God’s grace, our investors have backed us and supported us a lot. We will have another fundraising round shortly, having delivered on our goals from the fundraiser earlier this year.
On the way, marketing plays an important role for Good Flippin’ Burgers in beating the competition in the QSRs market
D’Silva: The reason investors and franchisees flock to well-established international brands is that creating a brand that resonates with consumers is not easy. But there is greater value in creating a brand, and that is not just valuation-wise; it is also because the four to six per cent royalties that you pay to international brands are saved when you create your own homegrown brand. With investments in marketing, it’s virtually impossible to create a brand, but we do it in a nimble manner using the power of new-age media to tell our story. The more people hear about us, the more they try our products, so we focus on building a great experience for the customer. I believe there is no greater marketing asset than a satisfied customer, so the highest NPS score possible is where we invest the most.
On the challenges faced by the Indian QSRs when international QSR brands are expanding their roots in India and are customising their menus as per demand like - Tim Hortons and Starbucks
Marchant: Indian QSRs have seen more misses than hits historically, so getting people to believe that something homegrown can be as good if not better than any international brand that comes into India is a challenge. Creating SOPs, building teams, and not falling prey to investors who would like 10 stores to open a month are the challenges Indian QSRs face today.
On India witnessing a resurgence in the number of QSRs as many brands are expanding
D’Silva: It’s fantastic, and we can only grow together. We see competition in many ways as something to learn from and expand the overall market. QSR is poised to grow at 23 per cent CAGR in the next five years.
On the significance of product innovation for brands to beat the competition in the market
Marchant: Keeping a lean and focused menu is probably as important as constant innovation. Matthew leads our product innovation, and everything that comes out of our stable is special. We also test product-market fit with limited-time offers.
On the challenges that you have faced as a newly launched brand amongst a host of large international and national brands, and overcoming those
D’Silva: In the early stages, it was a belief, but as we have grown, numbers speak for themselves, and larger capital has become more readily available to us, something big brands have had from day one. The only way to overcome the obstacles is to hit those goals and the matrix on a consistent basis. We have grown 3x in store count while maintaining a store profitability of 20 per cent. We understand this.
On the trends and innovations that the Indian QSR market will witness
Marchant: New entrants are coming into the market with great products and founders, and they are challenging the status quo. The trend we are noticing is that customers are willing to pay for a better and fuller experience, and their tastes are also maturing with more exposure. QSR has to focus more on the product than the novelty of fast food.
D’Silva: The use of AI and kitchen automation will leapfrog in the next five years.
