#268 The Rise of Gymkhana Fine Foods with Gulrez Arora

In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, host Daniel Scharff sits down with his longtime friend Gulrez Arora, founder of Gymkhana Fine Foods, the retail brand born out of London's two-Michelin-star Gymkhana restaurant, to talk about building a global premium Indian food brand from scratch.

Gulrez and Daniel first met working together at Mars, where Gulrez spent nearly a decade in strategy roles across Asia Pacific chocolate and later ran an internal innovation and venture studio program. That experience taught him how hard it is to manufacture true founder energy inside a large corporation, and eventually led him to London, where a chance introduction to the founders of JKS Restaurant Group (the team behind Gymkhana) sparked the idea of bringing the restaurant's uncompromising culinary standard into center store.

Daniel and Gulrez dig into the year-long process of translating Gymkhana's restaurant recipes into shelf-stable products without cutting corners, the hybrid in-house and co-packed manufacturing model built to protect quality, why the brand has driven outsized category growth and incrementality everywhere it launches, and how lessons from Mars and consulting shaped Gulrez's approach to scaling in both the UK and the US.

Listen in as they discuss:

• How Gulrez's decade at Mars, including running an internal venture studio, shaped his instincts as a founder
• The serendipitous introduction to JKS Restaurant Group that led to the Gymkhana retail partnership
• Why the team waited over a year to launch, refusing to bring a product to market they weren't fully proud of
• The multi-layered, restaurant-style cooking process behind Gymkhana's sauces, and why there are no shortcuts
• The hybrid manufacturing model, with 40 to 50% of products made in-house and the rest co-packed
• Gymkhana's current product lineup, from simmer sauces to marinades, and what's coming next
• Why the brand has driven 900% category growth in the UK, with the majority of sales fully incremental
• How Gymkhana's in-store activation strategy, especially near meat and poultry, drives trial and repeat purchase
• The differences between building awareness in the UK versus the US, where Indian food is less culturally embedded
• Gymkhana's $8.5 million Series A with CAVU Ventures, and how that partnership has shaped the brand's growth

Episode Links:

• Gulrez Arora LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/gulrez-arora-2b40208
• Gymkhana Fine Foods LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/gymkhana-fine-foods-ltd
• Gymkhana Fine Foods Website: www.gymkhanafinefoods.com
• Gymkhana Fine Foods Instagram: @gymkhanafinefoods
  
  

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Show Links:

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• Episode music by Super Fantastics