#268 The Rise of Gymkhana Fine Foods with Gulrez Arora
Gulrez Arora, founder of Gymkhana Fine Foods, explains how he leveraged his decade at Mars and a serendipitous connection with JKS Restaurant Group to launch a premium Indian food brand. Arora details the decision to build a hybrid manufacturing model, producing 40-50% of products in-house to maintain restaurant-quality standards that co-packers could not replicate. He discusses the brand's strategy of driving 900% category growth in the UK and achieving rapid success in the US through Whole Foods and Sprouts, relying on heavy in-store activation near meat sections to drive incremental sales.