An Indian born, US-educated, Australian citizen, Tejpavan Singh Gandhok has recently joined as the CEO of Om Pizzas (OMP), the master franchisee for Papa Johns Pizza in India, as well as Chillis, the Tex-Mex Restaurants. His appointment was announced with fresh investments from the existing investor in OMP - TVS Capital Fund.
Prior to this, Gandhok was the CEO of Dabur-promoted chain restaurant venture Lite Bite Foods, which co-founded and led for four years. Today, it has 40 stores across nine cities and a turnover of Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion). He has also worked as an operating partner for a PE fund with two mid-size companies -- Sports Station and and PI industries.
Leveraging his experience with Lite Bite Foods, where he focused on store profitability than store count, Gandhok plans to enhance store-level
profits in OMP by indulging the consumers with OMP's superior products, brand activity. The target is to achieve Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) revenue and more than 100 outlets, he says.
"We are the Starbucks of the Pizza world!! So plenty of room for us to play in the big gap between the fine dine pizzerias (which charge more than Rs 700 per person) and the mass market Dominos and Pizza Hut (which charges around Rs 200-300 per person)," he added. With Chillis Texas Grill & Bar, the company would hit the perfect spot in casual dining and a fun bar, with an international ambience.
Prior to his entrepreneurial stints, he has an experience of more than 15 years of international senior partner level corporate advisory experience across Australia, USA, Southeast Asia and India with strategy consulting and PE firms such as Halycon Partners, AT Kearney, Stern Stewart & Co and The Boston Consulting Group.