Many Dutch companies sell their products to the rising Indian middle class, but Janta Meals focuses on slum dwellers. "With meals for workers, you can make as much money in India as you can with a five-star hotel."
"Very hectic," Jesse van de Zand (33) answers when asked how he is doing. His company Janta Meals, which sells cheap and healthy meals to workers in Indian slums, is growing rapidly. The 21 outlets in Gurgaon are running like clockwork, with 15,000 meals a day on sale: lentil and vegetable curries with rice or roti. Meanwhile Van de Zand is holding far-reaching talks on expansion in Haridwar, a pilot is running in Bangalore and he is in the middle of final negotiations with four Indians who want to invest in Janta Meals.
"We need 2.5 million euros to build a professional production kitchen," says Van de Zand. "With the construction of that kitchen, our production capacity will increase tenfold to 150,000 meals a day. This will allow us to further reduce the cost price and become profitable."
The cost price is already bizarrely low by Dutch standards. Van de Zand: "On a meal costing 20 rupees - about 30 euro cents - we make a margin of four cents. That margin will soon increase to 8 cents. We expect to break even for the first time in 2017.
Van de Zand started Janta Meals with a pilot in 2013. Together with his Indian partner Prahbat Agarwal, he opened two restaurants in Gurgaon. This proved to be a good way to conduct market research, set prices and test the earnings model. After four months, Van de Zand and Agarwal drew their conclusions. "There was a lot of demand, but the distribution model did not work at all. We even cooked and sold in the outlets. That turned out to be very inefficient."
In 2014, they switched to a central production kitchen, which increased efficiency, allowed the number of meals to grow significantly (from 500 to 15,000 per day) and strongly improved the financial results. It also brought recognition: Last year in Mumbai, Jesse van de Zand received the prestigious Sankalp Award for the best social enterprise in India.
While the social character of Janta Meals is paramount for Van de Zand, he emphasises that Janta Meals can become very profitable. "Our margins are low, of course, but our growth potential is huge. In Delhi alone we can serve millions of people. You can make as much money with meals for workers in India as you can with a five-star hotel. I am convinced of that."
Interested in social entrepreneurship in India? NContact IndiaConnected partner Maarten van der Schaaf!