Lenexis Foodworks does Chinese fast food under the brand Chinese Wok, previously called Wok Express; and Indian food under the brand Big Bowl. Chinese Wok and Big Bowl run in about 200 stores across 25 cities. Lenexis Foodworks has a nine-year-long story in the food business. Cracking down on consumer insights and riding the tech wave to achieve consistency and scale, their Founder, Aayush Agrawal, tells us their story.
Tell us about the insight that birthed your food brands.
We realised that Indo-Chinese is the second most preferred cuisine after Indian food in the country. And there aren’t many QSR brands at scale that sell Chinese food in India. We started Wok Express in 2015 and customised our offerings for the Indian palate.
India was never a bread-eating culture. Our primary diet was rice. That is why our offering is different from a Subway, McDonald’s or Domino’s — they have bread in their offering and we have noodles and rice.
Chinese food has always been consumed in India, either in restaurants or on the streets. Our offering is somewhere in the middle of those price points. So we have the opportunity to take both restaurant casual diners and people who indulge in street food.
We are proud to say that in the last nine years, we’ve been able to create the largest Indian QSR Chinese brand. Our major dominance is in Tier 1 cities, where 85% of our stores are, currently. We are also present across malls, high streets and dark kitchens and we employ 3,000-odd people.
Lenexis Foodworks has a unique company-owned, company-operated (COCO) business model. Why is that?
Being COCO is a unique model for an Indian company or even for multinationals that typically go the franchise route. We do it because this way, we are able to maintain our quality standards and train the team based on our requirements. We want our customers to receive the best quality experience across our stores. We’ve been lucky with the response that we’re getting in almost all markets where we are a dominant player and will soon compete with larger multinationals in terms of numbers.
What have been the best ways to reach out to potential customers?
We do precision marketing through digital. And we market on Swiggy and Zomato. The aggregators are where lots of the delivery business comes from. Delivery aggregators have made things easier for restaurants and food suppliers because they take care of the last mile delivery. But at the same time, if you want to stand out from other players listed on their platform, you have to do your marketing. Otherwise, you’ll end up having to commoditise your offering and compete for price, which we don’t wish to do.
Have you noticed any significant changes in consumer behaviour in the food business?
Dine-in numbers are back up to pre-Covid numbers. However, in certain micro markets, consumers still haven’t gotten back to their offices and IT parks—they’re still working from home. People are price-sensitive and look for discounted offerings, but the brand pull that comes from marketing and brand campaigns definitely reduces price sensitivity. The number of deliveries has also increased. To service them, we’ve started dark kitchens in neighbourhoods where dining out doesn’t exist as much, which has done well for us.
The consumer is becoming increasingly health and environment-conscious. Does that have an effect on your brands’ offerings?
In terms of environmental consciousness, we’ve always served and delivered our food in multi-use plastic rather than single-use plastic. Health consciousness, I believe, is a small and specific market today and it is more for homemade food. When it comes to restaurants and eating out, people like to indulge.
What do the expansion plans look like?
We’ve seen great numbers come in from our Tier 2 and Tier 3 expansion. We’ve realised because of IT parks and educational institutions coming up in Tier 2 and Tier 3s, there is a huge demand. Up until last year, it was an untapped market for us. Now, 80% of our new 100 stores will be in Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. We’re also seeing that in a lot of places, the supply creates its own demand. I believe that will be the India story for the next few decades, not just years.
