“Having already established a niche market in the dessert category, Vikas used his entrepreneurship skills & created an effective marketing strategy to spread brand awareness”
RIDING THE SUCCESS WAVE ON CHOCOLATE DESSERTS
Starting his professional journey with a single outlet at Ahmedabad in 2007, the suave Co-founder and MD of The Chocolate Room India, Vikas Panjabi, has established over 260 chocolate cafes extending its footprints in 8 countries, over 20 states and over 60 cities and is aiming to grow twofold in the next 2 years
TAPPING THE RIGHT NERVE
Establishing the first chocolate café brand to have introduced franchise in the Indian market and live kitchen concept in the Indian café industry, Vikas has set the trend for serving a plethora of fresh sumptuous chocolate desserts and beverages to his customers. As he well understands that quality and international standards are important to survive in any F&B business, before serving to the customers, all his products are test-marketed to gauge their appeal to the public and only after passing through stringent quality test procedures are included in the menu.
Having registered The Chocolate Room (TCR)’s presence with about 260 outlets in cities including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Gurgaon, Lucknow, New Delhi and more, Vikas is aiming to expand its footprint to 500 outlets and increase its turnover to Rs. 300 crore by fiscal year 2020.
SETTING A NEW CHOCOLATE CULTURE
Vikas has set a new trend in the chocolate industry, and his enthusiasm and efforts have been well rewarded as he and his company has won numerous prestigious awards. Dedicated to offer his customers complete satisfaction and high-quality delicious chocolates, he has in his kitty 20 flavours of Italian hot chocolate, chocolate fondues, chocolate melting pots, chocolate cakes, waffles with strawberries and hot chocolate sauce, and a special dessert hand-made chocolates using the finest Belgian Chocolate, launched in October 2007 in India.
Having already established a niche market in the dessert category, Vikas used his astute entrepreneurship skills and created a strategic and highly effective marketing strategy to spread brand awareness, appealing food products to gain global recognition, cross-promotional offers with MNCs, collaborative branding with other companies, growing faith and support of customers and above all excessive oral publicity that has led to the spread of an unheard of chocolate culture in India.
QUEST FOR QUALITY
Having established an ISO 9001:2008 certified company, Vikas has always keenly focused on high quality and standards being followed by all his franchisees, and thus maintains the following excellent qualities in all of them— reliable background, financial credibility, favourable retail background, young entrepreneurs, motivation to not only run the outlet but also come up with more numbers, customer service skills to get the customers educated about the brand, and a good market area of over 1,000 sq. ft. with excellent footfall possibility. He is ever ready with his team of experts to provide all kinds of assistance to a prospective franchisee such as equipment, staff selection, staff training and on-going support to maintain impeccable value of its chocolate products and satisfactory customer service.
SPREADING WINGS
Riding on the wave of success, Vikas has some great ambitious plans for his organisation, as after extending its outlets in tier-II and tier-III cities, he is targeting bigger cities for expansion. TCR is now moving towards raising equity and looking to spread more company outlets in 2018 by raising equity. Realising a high percentage of sale in his company through selling chocolates to corporate houses and to customers who visit his outlets, he is planning to get into retailing chocolates through its current and modern trade outlets to take it to the next level. Extending its presence to countries like Australia, the USA, the UK, Canada, Oman, Dubai, and Cyprus, he is consistently growing his brand as a pioneer among the chocolate serving cafés.
