The restobiz interview with
Amuleek Singh Bijral, Co-Founder & CEO
From Harvard Business School to the corporate world to heading the country’s largest organized chai retail business, it’s an uncommon journey.
I had always thought of and dreamt of my own venture. After business school I worked with a technology company. Then came the time when I wanted to set up my own enterprise. Hot beverages, starting with chai, it was to be. Every culture has its hot beverage ritual and I wanted to own that ritual. In India, it’s anchored around chai. It’s a massive market with huge potential and there were so few organized businesses in the segment. That’s why Chai Point. And I think my business studies and corporate experience has been useful, so it’s not incongruous.
Your business has evolved in the last 9 years. What are the significant changes?
At the very beginning, I had, perhaps, thought of taking good quality chai across markets, including the blue-collar worker. Our pricing, store look all revolved around that. I always had a vision for a very big chain and I realized the entire country was in aspiration mode, moving upwards. I didn’t want to go against that wave. So, you have Chai Point in its present form, catering to a target group that places a premium on a hot, well-made cup of chai.
Chai Point now is more than a place to grab a tea. What does the brand now encompass?
Even as we opened stores, we realized the beverage had also to go to the customer. It had to be within arm’s reach – whether they were coming to our stores, in their offices or at home. We worked towards that and the one-of-a-kind heat-retaining flask (which has since been copied) was designed, allowing us to deliver chai on call. Then came BoxC, the IoT-enabled automatic dispenser that provides high quality tea and filter coffee to offices. I want to add here, that we are one of the top players in the filter coffee market, and will soon be launching our own coffee brand. So, Chai Point is more than just chai.
Enabling these complex operations is all the technology we deploy. There are days when a store sees 700 orders in a day, and an order every 55 seconds. Technology ensures that the store manager can focus on the product and not have to worry about the back-end.
Your 100th store that came up in Indiranagar, Bangalore, has a different look and feel. What went into that?
Yes, for one thing, it’s larger than our previous stores. It’s built on a different design philosophy, with strong elements of wood and stone, underlining our commitment to the environment as well. Our stores will increasingly become sensory experiences; we rely on them for our marketing, spending very little on traditional or conventional avenues of marketing.
You spoke of your focus on the environment…
Yes, we are constantly looking to reduce our carbon footprint. In the stores we’ve done away with paper cups, plastic straws and stirrers. Our tea is served in glasses or kulhads, the food in bagasse plates. Our flasks are mostly recyclable, but not 100 % and we are investing in R&D to tackle that.
We have systems in place to track the amount of plastic we are using, right from the supply level.
Also, we are very conscious about where and how we source our teas. They come from estates that adhere to the highest standards when it comes to controlling pesticide levels, for instance. A customer might have 2-3 cups of Chai Point tea in a day and we owe it to them to see that it’s safe and good for them.
What were some of the key turning points in your journey?
The realization that we are not a café brand, but an omni-channel brand. Successful businesses follow the customer. We did that by putting in place stores, delivery and dispensing, making it all part of a continuum. All these channels, as I said before, are enabled by technology.
What’s your management style?
Small teams. None of my teams have more than 6-8 people. They are empowered and they do fantastic things.
Speaking of people, we have set up the Mountain Trail Academy, which is the training platform for Chai Point. This is where our chai masters are trained. It includes an e-learning and online certification platform to ensure continuous up-gradation of skills for our teams.
