Journalism of Courage
It was one fine evening in New York that Chandigarh-based businessman Ankush Arora, tried serving French fries in a glass jar at a friend’s party. To his surprise, it was a mega hit. That’s when the idea of setting up a food joint struck him. And that led to the birth of Uncle Jack’s.
From making bricks to setting up a chain of food joints selling gourmet fries and burgers, Ankush Arora made a giant leap that’s taking him places.
Ankush has already set up 17 outlets of Uncle Jack’s in Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana, and plans to open 100 pan India by 2025. Here he shares his journey with Hina Rohtaki.
Tell us about yourself, your roots
I hail from a quintessential middle-class business family in Chandigarh. I did my schooling from St Anne’s Convent School, and a degree in electrical engineering from Chitkara Engineering College in 2013. Later, I did a diploma course in Marketing and Business Management from the Harvard Summer School in Boston.
Basically I am a techie turned chef as I am extremely fond of food especially American food. My father had a brick manufacturing business at Dera Bassi in Punjab which he inherited from his forefathers. I also used to help my father in our business. The maternal side of my family had one of the oldest bookselling outlets called The English Book Shop in Sector 17, Chandigarh.
What lead you to start this chain?
When I was studying in Boston, I used to visit New York on weekends. The city has a global collection of food. The street and the food scene there inspired me a lot. Once I tried serving French fries in a glass jar at a friend’s party in New York and it was an instant hit with people. I still use the format in my restaurants. We were globally the first to try such a unique way of serving food. Right from the time I grew up, I knew I would get into the food business one day.
My parents and family members were not convinced with the idea of getting into the food business. Being from an industrial business background, they had no idea how the QSR business in urban India was growing and how it was attracting the young working population and the dual-income families. At that point, they could not envision how selling burgers and pizzas could be a sustainable and scalable source of income. Now the scenario has changed. The family has wound up their traditional business of manufacturing bricks and they now share various responsibilities at Uncle Jack’s.
Challenges you faced
None of us had any previous experience in running this business. We learnt through trial and error. Be it inventory and staff management, or pilferages at the store, we learnt everything on the job.
Also like every other restaurant business, Uncle Jack’s also felt the tremors of the coronavirus pandemic. The business was shut down during the lockdown, but as the economy started opening, the company’s financials started recovering too. In December 2020, things started looking up for the company and Uncle Jack’s was able to recover its losses.
Plans for the future
While the company is planning to have a total of 30 stores by next year, Uncle Jack’s aspires to be a pan-India 100-outlet QSR chain by 2025. Not only that, we are working on creating more FMCG verticals. It would include a bakery line selling cookies off the rack, and other in-house bakery items.
My secret sauce
The secret of my success is that I made my passion my profession.
I believe niche strategies helped my business grow as a home-grown brand of international quality American street food and give the big brands a run for their money.
How do you de-stress?
I just love to travel. Basically it is travel and food that de-stresses me. When I am stressing out, I focus on taking out some”me time”.
Advice to other professionals
I would just say follow your passion. Follow your passion because then you’ll be able to give your best and enjoy all the hard work that goes into any business. Stop caring about what other people will think, just give your best to what you love, and let your silence make the noise for you.
