WHOPPER® mania hits India
BURGER KING® debut restaurant welcomes 10,000 guests, serves over 4,500 Whoppers in 2 days
Mumbai, November 11, 2014: Burger King opened doors of India’s first Burger King Restaurant in New Delhi on Sunday, 9th November 2014. The inaugural outlet is situated in Select Citywalk, Saket, New Delhi and marks the commencement of a minutely deliberated strategy to build BURGER KING® as a committed brand that will create & innovate for the discerning Indian consumer’s palate. This event marks not only its debut in India, but also a milestone for the BURGER KING® brand, which is now operating in its 100th country.
Since the launch, BURGER KING® has served more than 10,000 eager guests who waited their turn to get their hands on the WHOPPER®. Additionally, the debut restaurant sold more than 4,500 Whoppers in the last 2 days, setting a milestone for its launch in India.
Burger King Worldwide, Inc. and Everstone Group, a leading private equity and real estate firm in India and South East Asia, established a joint venture in 2013 to develop the BURGER KING® brand in India.
Commenting on the first milestone of this partnership, Mr. JaspalSabharwal, Partner, Everstone Capital, said “We are extremely pleased to launch this iconic brand in one of the largest and most dynamic consumer markets in the world. We have managed to successfully combine the BURGER KING® brand philosophy of exceptional taste, fresh ingredients and good value with Indian flavours and locally sourced produce. The response has been overwhelming and we look forward to delivering exceptional food and an extraordinary guest experience as we continue to open outlets across the country.”
Echoing the sentiment, Mr. Rajeev Varman, CEO, BURGER KING® India said, “We are humbled by the response of our customers and thank them for their love for BURGER KING® and the iconic WHOPPER®. Our focus is always the consumer and all our efforts are directed at product development and innovations to satisfy customers in our restaurants. We will listen, learn and innovate constantly.”
Speaking about the launch, Ms. Uma Talreja, Chief Marketing Officer, BURGER KING® India said, “Even before we launched, we found over 4 lac consumers in India who expressed interest in Burger King on Facebook. We therefore associated with eBay India to allow customers to pre order the WHOPPER® and we sold an astounding 1200 Whoppers in 36 hours. The demand for the WHOPPER® before we launched has been encouraging and we are thankful that we have equity displayed by consumers for our brand in the country.”
The BURGER KING® India menu offers a wide variety of vegetarian & non-vegetarian burgers with quality ingredients across various price-points and is designed to help consumers find options to suit their needs.BURGER KING® has also created a special upgrade option for Indian customers where one can upgrade any burger to a combo including a beverage and fries for an additional Rs 50 only.
India is the ground for many pioneering innovations for BURGER KING®. While the menu has international classics like the iconic WHOPPER® and the Original Royale, BURGER KING® has spared no effort in understanding Indian consumers and giving them what they love. The WHOPPER® is thus available in three options – veg, chicken and mutton.
But, the real difference will come for the large cheese consuming audience with a newly created platform for India called the Melt series, with molten cheese infused recipes in various options across veg and non-veg burgers and sides. Vegetarian consumers will be spoilt for choice between crispy, spicy, vegetable, paneer, cheese, bean, long or big burgers and sides including innovative fries and desserts.
The brand in India will continue to stand for quality, freshness, flame-grilled style of cooking, satisfactory portion sizes and above all, great taste.
About Burger King®
Burger King® is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in Miami, Florida, United States. Founded in 1954, Burger King®is the second largest fast food hamburger chain in the world. Every day, more than 11 million guests visit Burger King® restaurants across 13,000 restaurants around the world.
About Everstone Capital
Founded in 2006, the Everstone Capital is a leading India and South East Asia focused investor with private equity and real estate funds. Headquartered in Singapore, the firm has around 150 people working across five offices (Singapore, Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Mauritius). Everstone Capital was awarded ‘Private Equity Firm of the Year in India’ by Private Equity International for three consecutive years (2011, 2012 and 2013).