(As featured in Phygital magazine, 2020)
The trend of cloud kitchen has become a blessing in disguise given the pandemic. How does Hungry Wheels fit in to the whole scheme of things?
Hungry Wheels is the pioneer in providing ‘Mobility As A Service’ (MAAS) for the F&B and retail sectors. ‘Mobile Restaurant’ and ‘Retail On Wheels’ solutions from Hungry Wheels create memorable, happy and safe ‘Outdoor Dining’ experiences for families, and office goers. All just an elevator ride down in apartments and IT parks in the middle of Covid19.
Chefs, home chefs, brands, caterers and QSR are serving fresh food, cooked right in front of their customers’ eyes – keeping the cash registers ringing. Hungry Wheels has launched its first mobile restaurant model – Cloud1000 (a ‘Cloud Kitchen On Wheels’). The flameless, FSSAI compliant, and Naked-Kitchens on ‘Cloud Kitchen On Wheels’ – build trust, build your brand, build value and build customer connect. Hungry Wheels is Proudly Made In India, and Designed In India.
Tell us a little about the solution you bring forth for the F&B industry.
Hungry Wheels is the platform for entrepreneurs and brands looking to go direct-to-consumer and creating memorable outdoor experiences. Its compliant ‘Mobile Restaurant’ and ‘Retail On Wheels’ solutions provide mobility, which unshackle you from location risks, lower risks mean speedy growth, and we all know that growth creates wealth for our clients and employment for nation-building.
Hungry Wheels mobile restaurants are electric, modern, beautiful and are built with restaurant grade M.E.P. on zero emission vehicles. Ergonomic, dual-side serving, and brandable, each mobile restaurant accommodates six chefs. Hungry Wheels solutions are designed to provide the highest ease of doing business, as they manage ancillary services, for example: drivers, parking, compliance, marketing technology, loyalty management, m-POS etc. So while you cook your magic and take it to customers who are hungry and waiting, we keep clock-work operations going.
Hungry Wheels is also collaborating with multiple partners to create Mobile Restaurant parks across India, plus is creating access to RWAs and Corporate parks for its clients. We intend to create unforgettable Outdoor Experiences so F&B brands can deliver a new experience every time a consumer drives in or walks in into these parks.
What marketing strategy have you been following or are planning to follow in order to register a strong foothold in the Indian market?
Hungry Wheels is for those – hungry to grow. We understand the legacy of pains associated with growing a F&B brand, and we are solving those through our compliant, mobile, and holistic solution. In the past we have used organic word of mouth marketing through F&B consultants to build awareness which has worked wonders for us. With the demand increasing for our solution in the middle of Covid19, and reduced travel feasibility for our clients we are looking at targeted digital campaigns, appointing marketing partners, and offering our channel as an alternative to those Franchising their food brands. We intend to work with those who believe in our philosophy – ‘SERVE WITH HONOUR’.
Tell us a little about your brand’s retail journey. Will you want to name a few brands you have helped, if so then how have you worked towards giving each one a specialized support?
Hungry Wheels has been piloting and testing its solution and feasibility for over 3 years now. We are going to market after having tested P&L, buying behavior and operational challenges thoroughly. During these years we have had the privilege of working with brands, individual chefs and catering companies who have helped us evolve our solution, our model and also helped us validate that we make their life easy. At Hungry Wheels everything we do is to increase ease of doing business for our customers. We are rolling out our services, you will find one parked near you, very soon.
With COVID changing the dimensions of food retail, how have you revived the ways of doing business to face the #NewNormal retail domain in the post-pandemic world?
Hungry Wheels has been built to create a trustable, transparent and travelling experience on Indian roads. The unhygienic environments on Indian roads were part of our first series of studies, hence, for us the #NewNormal terms of Contactless Ordering, Contactless Service, Transparent Kitchens were already a part of our vocabulary and our offering. We believe the pandemic has forced us all to experience a unique pain as a civilisation, and as a society we will continue to demand more hygiene, more transparency and more convenience where we are. We foresee that consumers will value these new-found beliefs and their benefits, therein lies the opportunity for brands to start deploying customer friendly mobility solutions from Hungry Wheels.
You are known for bringing a change in the market given your unique approach. What goes at the backend? Tell us a little about your team and the technology involved.
Hungry Wheels is founded and led by two professionals, an ex-servicemen with 45 plus years of ELSO (Extremely Large Scale Operations) and a globally experienced innovator and marketing specialist with 20 plus years of experience.
Hungry Wheels disruptive technology enables any cuisine, and any retail format to be fitted into a modern, beautiful and zero emission vehicle. Each Mobile Restaurant vehicle is ergonomically designed to be ready for retail, it gives the freedom of a beautiful workspace of 1000cubic feet having restaurant grade M.E.P. services, FSSAi compliant materials and world class design.
Every Hungry Wheels customer also gets access to its ‘IntelliTech Platform’ which comprises of world class marketing technology, loyalty management, m-POS. The ‘IntelliTech Platform’ is designed and built for scale, it works for you even while you are asleep eg. it tells you where demand is, attracts customers, assists in monitoring operations and, brings operational efficiency through custom analytics.
How has the Indian consumer evolved over the years in terms of their preferences? Do you see your concept gaining acceptability from brands considering customer demands?
100 years ago we stepped out of our homes in search of jobs, food, and experiences. Only in the past twenty years, convenience models have managed to bring products in brown boxes to our doorsteps. However, in India no one has been able to bring a compliant mobile restaurant to our doorsteps and create unforgettable, outdoor experiences. As Indian’s have travelled globally, they have been exposed to a variety of cuisines being served from food trucks which are now an established business model, the consumer expectations are the same after they get back to India.
This demand trend of bringing outdoor experiences to our homes and office complexes were already high pre-covid. During covid19 we have seen brands like DMart, Levis, Dabur, ITC and others adopt mobility and realise its true potential. In a post-covid future the demand trend is already seeing an upswing, though the thing to keep in mind is that discerning customers are demanding a sophisticated, sustainable, and convenient experience – which can be delivered by riding on Hungry Wheels.
How do you maintain the profitability quotient? Any market projections or aspirations?
As an eco-friendly, scalable, and resilient solution Hungry Wheels aims to become the largest platform for micro entrepreneurs through its solutions and provide employment to 50,000+ by 2025. They aim to be the vehicle for growing India’s biggest soft-power – it’s diverse culinary plate.
What are your future plans for the brand?
We are looking at being the preferred phygital marketing channel which combines digital and real-life experiences, to bring the benefits of mobility to consumers and brands alike. Because phygital marketing is proving to be essential to the survival of brick-and-mortar F&B/ retail and growth of e-commerce brands, we believe the future is bright and the wave is here.
Riding on technology, what are the innovation or changes you wish to bring to your services in the years to come?Hungry Wheels is building a connected nationwide network of ‘Mobile Restaurants’ and ‘Retail On Wheels’ which are IoT enabled. Being an innovation led brand, it intends to continue the focus on creating solutions and technology to improve ease of doing business for its customers. The company has a robust OEM ecosystem and continues to use cutting edge technology for its solution such as rugged induction systems, and battery powered refrigeration etc.
Mobility architect, system designer, and ecosystem builder
Since 2012, he has developed various scalable vehicle platforms and solutions for retail, logistics, and defense. As a possibilist, futurist, and innovator, Vikram’s designs have powered the success of Food POD mobile kitchens at ITC, TAJ Hotels, Qmin, Manipal Group, and more.
