Jubilant FoodWorks launched Hong's Kitchen, its first own restaurant brand

Jubilant FoodWorks runs Domino's Pizza and Dunkin' Donuts in India, operating more than 1,200 stores across 271 cities.

JFL bet its Domino's-scale sourcing and real estate could profitably own the vast unaddressed middle: great-tasting, affordable Chinese customized for Indian tastes.

JFL had spent years as a franchise operator: it shuttered half its Dunkin' Donuts stores by 2018 and spent Rs 100 crore revamping Domino's the year before, while achieving Dunkin' break-even in the same quarter Hong's opened.

On March 13, 2019, JFL announced its foray into fast casual Chinese dining with the first Hong's Kitchen in Eros Mall, Gurugram — the Noida-based company's first own restaurant brand and third overall.

Building its first own brand — rather than licensing another — is a strategic identity shift for a franchise operator.

The Chinese fast-casual middle was a genuinely unaddressed price band in a cuisine ranked second in Indian out-of-home consumption.

JFL's existing sourcing and real-estate economies are the stated mechanism for surviving the loss-making early years.

A franchise giant's real edge in a new cuisine is cost structure, not recipes: sourcing scale and owned real estate let JFL price into the gap street vendors and fine dining leave open.

As of the March 2019 launch, Hong's Kitchen had opened its first restaurant in Eros Mall, Gurugram, with India's food services market — Rs 3.38 trillion in 2017 per Ficci and Technopak — forecast to reach Rs 5.52 trillion by 2022.