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| Arjun Varma |
Indian cuisine entrepreneur Arjun Varma runs a successful business serving food all over the world and has clients that include royalty and A-list celebrities. He tells startups.co.uk how he did it.
Arjun and Andy Varma first opened the doors of the restaurant, Vama, to customers in 1998 with a dream to bring the delights of Punjab cuisine to the UK.
Arjun, the business brains of the two, had studied at university in the UK for several years and wanted to plug a gap in the UK curry market.
“When I was studying here I realised that most curry houses were Bangladeshi and that there was virtually no North Indian food,” he says.
Back in India his brother Andy was already a well-respected chef and the pair decided to throw caution to the wind and start up a business providing authentic Indian food in the UK.
“Andy was a highly acclaimed chef back in India whereas I had been in the UK for 12 years previously and we decided that we should get a restaurant and a food concept going,” Varma says.
“We took a big gamble as Indian food is one of the most competitive food markets in the UK. There are 16,000 restaurants in the UK, 6,000 of which are in Greater London.”
They pooled money from personal savings, family and friends and a bank loan to get enough together to launch the business. And arranged for work permits for six chefs to come from India to come and work under Andy in the kitchen.
“There were a lot of internal pressures on us to succeed as we didn’t have a big budget to start with. We just couldn’t afford a big PR or advertising campaign.
“We decided that we had to grow the traditional way of word of mouth and recommendation and let the food, hospitality and service do the talking.”
It is a gamble that has paid off considerably as the restaurant, based on the Kings Road, Chelsea, is now part of a business empire with a turnover of around £3m a year.
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| Andy Varma |
Success led the brothers to expand but rather than take the obvious route and open further restaurants, the Varmas chose instead to diversify their business. Although still sticking to what they knew best - north Indian cuisine.
In January 2003 they opened Vama Direct, a catering events company, which prepares and provides food at major venues and parties.
“The idea came from when we catered for Rowan Atkinson’s New Year’s Eve party at the turn of the century,” says Varma. “He is a regular customer here and knows a lot about Indian food - his wife is Indian actually.
“There were about 300 people at the party and Prince Charles was among the guests.”
At the same time as Vama Direct they also opened Vamaji, which delivers their tasty food across south London.
The latest extension of the business is Vama Khana, which opened in January 2006 and supplies food to major airlines.
This business, like Vama Direct, was the result of another high profile diner visiting his London restaurant.
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