In 2021 TAJ HOTELS/IHCL chose to create happy experiences for QMIN QSR with HungryWheels Food POD.

We contacted Mr. Jehangir Press from IHCL who was handling QMIN, this was in early 2021 when the world was in chaos.

Our CEO loves working in extremes and designing for extremes, so it was his idea to speak with the World’s Strongest Hospitality Brand – Taj Hotels to explore if they could be our first customers. And if they saw Food PODs as a fit for their growth plans for QMIN as a QSR chain. And then… the story began of a great collaboration.

It took us 18 months to convince TAJ and QMIN teams, and not to mention multiple meetings with various stakeholders, including our CEO Vikram Sood driving from Bangalore to Bombay to meet with the decisions makers in the middle of Covid. While the world was standing still and coping with chaos, we were busy fighting a battle to prove to the skeptical team at IHCL / QMIN that Hungry Wheels Food PODs would are the ideal solution for unlocking the new on-demand behaviour which was built by the online ordering platforms. The task was an uphill one as the QMIN team already had one food truck which was very well designed but poorly executed. So it was hurting the operations teams more and more with each service.

Dare we say that the Qmin FOOD TRUCK like every other food truck was anti customer – for no other usable reason but the usual one.

Trucks are meant for trucking not retail. Hence the output is always jugged, no matter how much lipstick and vinyl we stick to hide or distract from the jugaad. Some negatives of Indian Food Trucks we have observed are below:

1. Customer’s having to climb a four foot ladder to place and pick up orders.
2. The window display being above the customers head.
3. No child or elderly friendliness.
4. Risks of fire and explosion with generators onboard and due tanks below.
5. Risk of food falling on customer. Chef are 8 feet in the sky – serving as if with the hand of God.
6. There are more reasons to choose HungryWheels v/s any other vehicle, bit that’s another post.

The QMIN team was presented that the issues were unresolvable due to the inherent challenges of repurposing logistics trucks for customer or retail experiences. But what chance did we stand with TATA Trucks on one side v/s a young start-up trying to not do jugaad and making a global quality mobile real-estate platform? Finally, the team agreed to give us an order for one Food POD.

We were excited, only to learn that the Chef global head of F&B would be leading the project design. When a young startup meets a veteran who designs every Taj Hotel kitchen in the world, things can go only two ways, sky rocketing or depth plummeting.

Introducing Chef Urban Denk…

What followed was probably one of the best relationships and learning’s we could have asked for India’s 1st Food POD and our Food POD Number 1. Chef was on holiday in Niece, and over calls and WhatsApp messages we got the brief, with clear instructions that we were to deliver a turnkey solution, as neither he nor does his team have time to follow up with multiple vendors. We learnt how he designs, why designs, what he considers and what are the standards globally. We got 4 decades worth of information during the course of the project.

Chef’s countrys’ of origin for the equipment to be fitted in the QMIN Food POD:

1. Germany
2. Japan
3. USA
4. Switzerland
5. India
6. Italy

Chef Urban Denk’s first and only brief for turnkey production:

The team at QMIN was lead by Mr. Jehangir Press, seldom has a Parsi not been sweet, but with his disarming smile, sharp eyes and gentle advice we were guided to ensure we deliver a product way beyond our own expectations. We were able to rise to the occasion due to his and Chef Denk’s contribution to our knowledge. Also, we must acknowledge the contribution of Chef Ganesh who was handling operations and Mr. Hariharan who taught us the value of being right every time with our documentation.

Taj Hotels chose HungryWheels QSR Food POD for Qmin QSR v/s Food Trucks?

1. Retro-futuristic design with multiple best in class features
2. Customer friendliness and ergonomic usability design for chefs, children and elderly alike
3. Programme design, development and turnkey project management

The Qmin POD branding: QMIN team sent us these images from their design team, these looked beautiful. You can see below the finally executed design which was done by our CEO Vikram. He always insists and ensures that thoughtful design goes into every decision and into every cubic inch to make Food PODs work hard in every aspect, to make our customers, their staff and their consumers lives easy.

HungryWheels PODS are also a 600 sft free mobile hoarding.

Why wait? Start by branding your Food POD here: https://hungrywheels.in/brand-your-pod/

Notice the purposeful design of the child friendly Food POD.

One of the many multi-purpose features a hallmark of HungryWheels. The two in one awning and window of the C1 Food POD.

If you two are looking to take your brand mobile and grow it outside the constraints of classic brick and mortar or mobile app aggregators – let’s talk.

Experience a 360 degree walkthrough of the QMIN Food POD kitchen here.